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N\ THE 


ELZEVIR LIBRARY 
SCIENCE SERIES 


VOLUME I. CONTAINING, 


By HERBERT SPENCER: . By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS: 


The Philosophy of Style. World-Smashing, 
By GEORGE RAWLINSON: Meteoric ¢Astronomys 


Lunar Volcanoes. 


By ANDREW WILSON: 
The Sea-Serpents of Science. 


The Civilizations of Asia. 


By T. H. HUXLEY: 


Demonstrative Evidences of 
Evolution. 


ence 


NEW YORK 
JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER 
1883 


ye © 4 Ws ees 
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Waren Te 7 


Ast COPY @exs 4 3-9 


— 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 


PARTE 


‘Causes of Force in Language which Depend upon Econ- 
omy of the Mental Energies. 


I.—THE PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMY APPLIED TO WORDS. 


COMMENTING on the seeming incongruity between 
his father’s argumentative powers and his ignorance of 
formal logic, Tristram Shandy says: ‘‘It was a matter 
of just wonder with my worthy tutor, and two or three 
fellows of that learned society, that a man who knew 
not so much as the names of his tools, should be able to 
work after that fashion withthem.” Sterne’s intended 
implication that a knowledge of the principles of rea- 
soning neither makes, nor is essential to, a good reasoner, 
is doubtless true. Thus, too, is it with grammar. As 
Dr. Latham, condemning the usual school-drill in Lind- 
ley Murray, rightly remarks: ‘‘ Gross vulgarity is a 
fault to be prevented; but the proper prevention is to be 
got from habit—not rules.” Similarly, there can be 
little question that good composition is far less depend- 
ent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice 
and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagina- 
tion, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making 
all rhetorical precepts needless. He who daily hears 
and reads well-framed seutences, will naturally more or 


4 _ THE HELZEVIR LIBRARY. 

less tend to use similar ones. And where there exists 
any mental idiosyncrasy—where there is a deficient ver- 
bal memory, or an inadequate sense of logical depend- 
ence, or but little perception of order, or a lack of con- 
structive ingenuity—no amount of instruction will rem- 
edy the defect. Nevertheless, some practical result may 
be expected from a familiarity with the principles of 
style. The endeavor to conform to laws may tell, 
though slowly. And if in no other way, yet, as facili- 
tating revision, a knowledge of the thing to be achieved 
—a clear idea of what constitutes a beauty, and what a 
blemish—cannot fail to be of service. 

No general theory of expression seems yet to have 
been enunciated. The maxims contained in works on 
composition and rhetoric are presented in an unorgan- 
ized form. Standing as isolated dogmas—as empirical 
generalizations, they are neither so clearly apprehended, 
nor so much respected, as they would be were they de- 
duced from some simple first principle. We are told 
that ‘‘ brevity is the soul of wit.” We hear styles con- 
demned as verbose or involved. Blair says that every 
needless part of a sentence ‘‘ interrupts the description 
and clogs the image;” and again, that ‘‘ long sentences 
fatigue the reader’s attention.” It is remarked by Lord 
Kaims that ‘‘to give the utmost force to a period, it 
ought, if possible, to be closed with the word that makes 
the greatest figure.” That parentheses should be avoided 
and that Saxon words should be used in preference to 
those of Latin origin, are established precepts. But, 
however influential the truths thus dogmatically em- 
bodied, they would be much more influential if reduced 
to something like scientific ordination. In this, as in 
other cases, conviction will be greatly strengthened 
when we understand the why. And we may be sure 


THH PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 5 


that a comprehension of the general principle from 
which the rules of composition result, will not only 
bring them home to us with greater force, but will dis- 
cover to us other rules of like origin. 

On seeking for some clue to the law underlying these 
current maxims, we may see shadowed forth in many 
of them the importance of economizing the reader’s or 
hearer’s attention. To so present ideas that they may 
be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is 
the desideratum towards which most of the rules above 
quoted point. When we condemn writing that: is 
wordy, or confused, or intricate—when we praise this 
style as easy, and blame that as fatiguing, we conscious- 
ly or unconsciously assume this desideratum as our 
standard of judgment. Regarding language as an ap- 
paratus of symbols for the conveyance of thought, we 
may say that, as in a mechanical apparatus, the more 
simple and the better arranged in its parts, the greater 
will be the effect produced. In either case, whatever 
force is absorbed by the machine is deducted from the 
result. A reader or listener has at each moment but a 
limited amount of mental power available. To recog- 
nize and interpret the symbols presented to him requires 
part of this power; to arrange and combine the images 
suggested requires a further part; and only that part 
which remains can be used for realizing the thought 
conveyed. Hence, the more time and attention it takes 
to receive and understand each sentence, the less time 
and attention can be given to the contained idea, and 
the less vividly will that idea be conceived. 

How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance 
to thought, though the necessary instrument of it, we 
shall clearly perceive on remembering the comparative 
force with which simple ideas are communicated by 


6 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY, 


signs. To say ‘‘ Leave the room” is less expressive than 
to point to the door. Placing a finger on the lips is 
more forcible than whispering ‘* Do not speak.” A beck 
of the hand is better than ‘‘Come here.” No phrase 
cin convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening 
the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the 
shoulders would lose much by translation into words, 
Again, it may be remarked that when oral language is 
employed, the strongest effects are produced by inter- 
jections, which condense entire sentences into syllables, 
And in other cases, where custom allows us to express 
thoughts by single words, as in Beware, Heigho, Fudge, 
much force would be lost by expanding. them into spe- 
cific propositions. Hence, carrying out the metaphor 
that language is the vehicle of thought, there seems 
reason to think that in all cases the friction and inertia 
of the vehicle deduct from its efficiency; and that in 
composition, the chief if not the sole thing to be done, 
isto reduce this friction and inertia to the smallest pos- 
sible amount. Let us then inquire whether economy of 
the recipient’s attention is not the secret of effect, alike 
in the right choice and collocation of words, in the best 
arrangement of clauses in a sentence, in the proper 
order of its principal and subordinate propositions, in 
the judicious use of simile, metaphor, and other figures 
of speech, and even in the rythmical sequence of sylla- 
bles. 

The greater forcibleness of Saxon English, or rather 
non-Latin English, first claims our attention. The sev 
eral special reasons assignable for this may all be re- 
duced to the general reason—ecconomy. The most im- 
portant of them ts early association. A child’s vocabu- 
lary is almost wholly Saxon. He says J have, not I pos- 
sess—I wish, not J desire; he does not reflect, he thinks; 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 7 


he does not beg for amusement, but for play; he calls 
things nice or nasty, not pleasant or disagrecable. The 
synonyms which he learns in after years never become 
so closely, so organically connected with the ideas sig- 
nified as do these original words used in childhood; and 
hence the association remains less strong. But in what 
does a strong association between a word and ar idea 
differ from a weak one? Simply in the greater case 
and rapidity of the suggestive action, It can be in 
nothing else. Both of two words, if they be strictly 
synonymous, eventually call up the same image. The 
expression, It is act?d, must in the end give rise to the 
same thought as It is sour; but because the term acid 
was learnt Jater in life, and has not been so often fol- 
lowed by the thought symbolized, it does not so readily 
arouse that thought as the term sour, If we remember 
how slowly and with what labor the appropriate ideas 
follow unfamiliar words in another language, and how 
increasing familiarity with such words brings greater 
rapidity and ease of comprehension; and if we consider 
that the same process must have gone on with the words 
_of our mother tongue from childhood upwards, we shall 
clearly sce that the earliest learnt and oftenest used 
words will, other things equal, call up images with less 
loss of time and energy than their later learnt syuo- 
nyms. 

The further superiority possessed by Saxon English 
in its comparative brevity, obviously comes under the 
same generalization. If it be an advantage to express 
an idea in the smallest number of words, then will it be 
an advantage to express it in the smallest number of 
syllables. If circuitous phrases and needless expletives 
distract theattention and diminish the strength of the 
impression produced, then do surplus articulations do 


8 THH ELZEVIR LIBRARY, 


so. A certain effort, though commonly an inappreci- 
able one, must be required to recognize every vowel 
and consonant. If, as all know, it is tiresome to listen 
to an indistinct speaker or read a badly written manu- 
script, and if, as we cannot doubt, the fatigue is a cu- 
mulative result of the attention needed to catch succes- 
sive syllables, it follows that attention is in such cases 
absorbed by each syllable. And if this be true when 
the syllables are difficult of recognition, it will also be 
true, though in a less degree, when the recognition of 
them is easy. Hence, the shortness of Saxon words be- 
comes a reason for their greater force. One qualifica- 
tion, however, must not be overlooked. A word which 
in itself embodies the most important part of the idea. 
to be conveyed, especially when that idea is an emo- 
tional one, may often with advantage be a polysyllabic 
word. Thus it seems more forcible to say, ‘‘It is mag- 
nificent,”’ than ‘‘It is grand.” The word vast is not so 
powerful a one as stupendous. Calling a thing nasty is 
not so effective as calling it disgusting. 

There seem to be several causes for this exceptional 
superiority of certain long words. We may ascribe it 
partly to the fact that a voluminous, mouth-filling 
epithet is, by its very size, suggestive of largeness or 
strength; witness the immense pomposity of sesquipe- 
dalian verbiage: and when great power or intensity has 
to be suggested, this association of ideas aids the effect. 
A further cause may be that a word of several sylla- 
bles admits of more emphatic articulation; and as em- 
phatic articulation is a sign of emotion, the unusual im- 
pressiveness of the thing named is implied by it. Yet 
another cause is that a long word [of which the latter 
syllables are generally inferred as soon as the first are 
spoken] allows the hearer’s consciousness a longer time 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 9 


to dwell upon the quality predicted; and where, as in 
the above cases, it is to this predicted quality that the 
entire attention is called, an advantage results from 
keeping it before the mind for an appreciable time. 
The reasons which we have given for preferring short 
words evident#7 do not hold here. So that to make 
our generalization quite correct we must say, that 
while in certain sentences expressing strong feeling the 
word which more especially implies that feeling may 
often with advantage be a many syllabled or Latin one, 
in the immense majority of cases, each word serving but 
as a step to the idea embodied by the whole sentence, 
should, if possible, be a one-syllabled or Saxon one. 

Once more, that frequent cause of strength in Saxon 
and other primitive words, their imitative character, 
may be similarly resolved into the more general cause. 
Both those directly imitative, as splash, bang, whiz, 
roar, etc., and those analogically imitative, as rough, 
smooth, keen, blunt, thin, hard, crag, etc., have a greater 
or less likeness to the things symbolized; and by mak- 
ing on the senses impressions allied to the ideas to be 
called up, they save part of the effort needed to call up 
such ideas, and leave more attention for the ideas them- 
selves. 

The economy of the recipient’s mental energy, into 
which are thus resolvable the several causes of the 
strength of Saxon English, may equally be traced in 
the superiority of specific over generic words. That 
concrete terms produce more vivid impressions than 
abstract ones, and should, when possible, be used in- 
stead, is a thorough maxim of composition. As Dr. 
Campbell says, ‘‘The more general the terms are, the 
picture is the fainter; the more special they are, the 
brighter.” We should avoid such a sentence as: 


10 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


—In proportion as the manners, customs, ma 
amusements of a nation are crue] and barbarous, the 
regulations of their penal code will be severe 

And in place of it we should wrile: 

In proportion as men delight in battles, bull- 
fights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by 
hanging, burning, and the rack. 

This superiority of specific expressions is clearly due 
to a saving of the effort required to translate words 
into thoughts. As we do not think in generals but in 
particulars—as, whenever any class of things is re- 
ferred to, we represent it to ourselves by calling to 
mind individual members of it—it follows that when 
an abstract word is used, the hearer or reader has to 
choose from his stock of images one or more by which 
he may figure to himself the genus mentioned, In 
doing this, some delay must arise—some force be ex- 
pended; and if, by employing a specific term, an ap- 
propriate image can be at once suggested, an economy 
is achieved, anda more vivid impression produced. 

Turning now from the choice of werds to their 
sequence, we shall find the same general principle hold 
good. We have a prior? reasons for believing that in 
every sentence there is some one order of words more 
effective than any other; and that this order is the one 
which presents the elements of the proposition in the 
succession in which they may be most readily put to- 
gether. Asina narrative the events should be stated 
in such sequence that the mind may not have to go 
backwards and forwards in order to rightly connect 
them; as in a group of sentences the arrangement 
should be such that each of them may be understood 
as it comes, without waiting for subsequent ones—so in 
every sentence the sequeuce of words should be that 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 11 
which suggests the constituents of the thought in the 
order most convenient for the building up that thought. 
Duly to enforce this truth, and to prepare the way for 
applications of it, we must briefly inauire into the men- 
tal act by which the meaning of a scries of Wronds is 
apprehended. 

We cannot more simply do this than by considering 
the proper collocation of the substantive and adjective. 
Is it better to place the adjective before the substantive, 
or the substantive before the adjective? Ought we to 
say with the French—uwun cheval noir; or to say as we 
do--a black horse? Probably most persons of culture 
would decide that one orderis as good as the other. 
Alive to the bias produced by habit, they would ascribe 
to that the preference they feel for our own form of ex 
pression. They would expect those educatcd in the 
use of the opposite form to have an equal preference 
for that. And thus they would conclude that neither 
of these instinctive judgments is of any worth, There 
is, however, a philosophical ground for deciding in 
favor of the English custom. If ‘‘a horse black’ be 
the arrangement, immediately on the utterance of the 
word ‘‘horse,” there arises, or tends to arise, in the 
mind, a picture answering to that word; and as there 
has been nothing to indicate what kind of horse, any 
image of a horse sugzests itself. Very likely, however, 
the image will be that of a brown horse, brown horses 
being the most familiar, The result is that when the 
word ‘‘ black” is added, a check is given to the process 
of thought. Either the picture of a brown horse al- 
ready present to the imagination has to be suppressed, 
and the picture of a black one summoned in its place, 
or else, if the picture of a brown horse be yet unformed, 
the tendency to form it has to be stopped. Whichever 


12 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


is the case, a certain amount of hindrance results. But 
if, on the other hand, ‘‘a black horse” be the expres- 
sion used, no such mistake can be made. The word 
“‘black,” indicating an abstract quality, arouses no 
definite idea. It simply prepares the mind for conceiv- 
ing some object of that color, and the attention is kept 
suspended until that object is known. If, then, by 
the precedence of the adjective, the idea is conveyed 
without liability to error, whereas the precedence of 
the substantive is apt to produce a misconception, it 
follows that the one gives the mind less trouble than 
the other, and is therefore more forcible. 

Possibly it will be objected that the adjective and 
substantive come so close together, that practically they 
may be considered as uttered at the same moment; and 
that on hearing the phrase, ‘‘a horse black,” there is 
not time to imagine a wrongly-colored horse before the 
word ‘‘ black” follows to prevent it. It must be owned 
that it is not easy to decide by introspection whether 
this is so or not. But there are facts collaterally im- 
plying that it is not. Our ability to anticipate the 
words yet unspoken is one of them. If the ideas of 
the hearer kept considerably behind the expressions of 
the speaker, as the objection assumes, he could hardly 
foresee the end of a sentence by the time it was half de- 
livered: yet this constantly happens. Were the suppo- 
sition true, the mind, instead of anticipating, would be 
continually falling more and more in arrear. If the 
meanings of words are not realized as fast as the words 
are uttered, then the loss of time over each word must 
entail such an accumulation of delays as to leave a 
hearer entirely behind. But whether the force of these 
replies be or be not admitted, it will scarcely be denied 
that the right formation of a picture will be facilitated 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE, 18 


by presenting its elements in the order in which they 
are wanted; even though the mind should do nothing 
until it has received them all. 
What is here said respecting the succession of the 
adjective and substantive is obviously applicable, by 
change of terms, to the adverb and verb. And without 
further explanation, it will be manifest that in the use 
of prepositions and other particles, most languages 
spontaneously conform with more or less completeness 
to this law. 
_ On applying a like analysis to the larger divisions of 
a sentence, we find not only that the same principle 
holds good, but that the advantage of respecting it be- 
comes marked. In the arrangement of predicate and 
subject, for example, we are at once shown that as the 
predicate determines the aspect under which the sub- 
ject is to be conceived, it should be placed first; and 
the striking effect produced by so placing it becomes 
comprehensible. Take the often-quoted contrast be- 
tween ‘‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians” and ‘‘ Diana 
of the Ephesians is great.” When the first arrange- 
ment is used, the utterance of the .word “great” 
arouses those vague associations of an impressive nature 
with which it has been habitually connected; the im- 
agination is prepared to clothe with high attributes 
whatever follows; and when the words ‘ Diana of the 
“Ephesians” are heard, all the appropriate imagery which 
can on the instant be summoned is used in the forma- 
tion of the picture, the mind being thus led directly, 
and without error, to the intended impression. When, 
on the contrary; the reverse order is followed, the idea, 
‘Diana of the Ephesians,” is conceived with no special 
reference to greatness; and when the words ‘‘is great” 
are added, the conception has to be remodelled, whence 


14 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


arises a loss of mental energy and a corresponding 
diminution of effect. The following verse from Cole- 
ridge’s ‘‘ Ancient Mariner,” though somewhat irregular 
in structure, well illustrates the same truth: 


** Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
Alone on a wide, wide sea! 
And never a saint took pity on 
My soul in agony.” 


Of course the principle equally applies when the pred- 
icate is a verb or a participle. And as effect is gained 
by placing first all words indicating the quality, con- 
duct or condition of the subject, it follows that the 
copula also should have precedence. It is true that 
the general habit of our language resists this arrange- 
ment of predicate, copula and subject; but we may 
readily find instances of the additional force gained by 
conforming to it. Thus, in the line from ‘ Julius 
Ceesar”— 

‘“‘Then burst this mighty heart,” 


priority is given to a word embodying both predicate 
and copula. Ina passage contained in ‘‘ The Battle of 
Flodden Field,” the like order is systematically em- 
ployed with great effect: 


‘“‘The Border slogan rent the sky! 

A Home! a Gordon! was the cry: 

Loud were the clanging blows: 

Advanced —forced back—now low, now high, 
The pennon sunk and rose; 

As bends the bark’s mast in the gale 

When rent are rigging, shrouds and sail, 
It wavered ’mid the foes.” 


Pursuing the principle yet further, it is obvious that 
for producing the greatest effect, not only should the 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 15 


main divisions of a sentence observe this sequence, but 
the subdivisions of these should be similarly arranged. 
In nearly all cases, the predicate is accompanied by 
some limit or qualification, called its complement. 
Commonly, also, the circumstances of the subject, 
which form its complement, have to be specified. And 
as these qualifications and circumstances must deter- 
mine the mode in which the acts and things they be- 
long to are conceived, precedence should be given to 
them, Lord Kaimes notices the fact that this order is 
_preferable, though without giving the reason. He 
says: ‘‘ Whena circumstance is placed at the beginning 
of the period, or near the beginning, the transition from 
it to the principal subject is agreeable—is like ascend- 
ing or going upward.” A sentence arranged in illus- 
tration of this will be desirable. Here is one: 
Whatever it may be in theory, it is clear that in 
practice the French idea of liberty is—the right of every 
man to be master of the rest. 

In this case, were the first two clauses, up to the word 
‘‘practice,” inclusive, which qualify the subject, to be 
placed at the end instead of the beginning, much of the 
force would be lost; as thus: 

The French idea of liberty is—the right of every 
man to be master of the rest; in practice at least, if not 
in theory. 

Similarly with respect to the conditions under which 
any fact is predicated. Observe in the following ex- 
ample the effect of putting them last: 

— How immense would be the stimulus to progress, 
were the honor now given to wealth and title given ex- 
clusively to high achievements and intrinsic worth! 

And then observe the superior effect of putting them 
first: 


16 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. — 


—wWerethe honor now given to wealth and title 
given exclusively to high achievements and intrinsic 
worth, how inimense would be the stimulus to prog- 
ress! 

The effect of giving priority to the complement of the 
predicate, as well as the predicate itself, is finely dis- 
played in the opening of ‘‘ Hyperion”: 

‘** Deep in the shady sadness of a vale 
Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, 


Far from the fiery noon and eve’s one star 
Sat gray-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone.”’ 


Here it will be observed, not only that the predicate 
*‘sat” precedes the subject ‘‘ Saturn,” and that the three 
lines in italics, constituting the complement of the pred- 
icate, come before it; but that in the structure of that 
complement also, the same order is followed: each line 
being so arranged that.the qualifying words are placed 
before the words suggesting concrete images. 

The right succession of the principal and subordinate 
_propositions in a sentence manifestly depends on the 
same Jaw. Regard for economy of the recipient’s at- 
tention, which, as we find, determines the best order 
for. the subject, copula, predicate, and their comple- 
ments, dictates that the subordinate proposition shall 
precede the principal one, when the sentence includes 
two. Containing, as the subordinate proposition does, 
some qualifying or explanatory idea, its priority pre- 
vents misconception of the principal one; and therefore 
saves the mental effort needed to correct such miscon- 
ception. ‘This will be seen in the annexed example. 

——The secrecy once maintained in respect to the 
Parliamentary debates, is still thought needful diplo- 
macy; and in virtue of this secret diplomacy, England 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 17 


may any day be unawares betvayed by its ministers into 
a war costing a hundred thousand lives, and hundreds 
of millions of treasure: yet the English pique them- 
selves on being a self-governed people. 

The two subordinate propositions, ending with the 
semicolon and colon respectively, almost wholly de- 
termine the meaning of the principal proposition with 
which it concludes; and the effect would be lost if they 
were placed last instead of first. 

The general principle of right arrangement in sen- 
-tences, which we have traced in its application to the 
leading divisions of them, equally determines the prop- 
er order of their minor divisions. In every sentence of 
any complexity the complement to the subject contains 
several clauses, and that to the predicate several others; 
and these may be arranged in greater or less conformity 
to the law of easy apprehension. Of course with these, 
as with the larger members, the succession should be 
from the less specific to the more specific—from the ab- 
stract to the concrete. 

Now, however, we must notice a further condition to 
be fulfilled in the proper construction of a sentence; 
but still a condition dictated by the same general prin- 
ciple with the other: the condition, namely, that the 
words and expressions most nearly related in thought 
shall be brought the closest together. Evidently the 
single words, the minor clauses, and the leading divis- 
ions of every proposition, severally qualify each other. 
The longer the time that elapses between the mention of 
any qualifying member and the member qualified, the 
longer must the mind be exerted in carrying forward 
the qualifying member ready for use. And the more 
numerous the qualifications to be simultaneously re- 
membered and rightly applied, the greater will be the 


18 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


mental power expended, and the smaller the effect pro- 
duced. Hence, other things equal, force will be gained 
by so arranging the members of a sentence that these 
suspensions shall at any moment be the fewest in num- 
ber; and shall also be of the shortest duration. The 
following is an instance of defective combination: 

——A modern newspaper statement, though probably 
true, would be laughed at, if quoted in a book as testi- 
mony; but the letter of a court gossip, is thought good 
historical evidence, if written some centuries ago. 

A rearrangement of this, in accordance with the prin- 
ciple indicated above, will be found to increase the 
effect. Thus: 

——Though probably true, a modern newspaper state- 
ment quoted in a book as testimony, would be laughed 
at; but the letter of a court gossip, if written some cen- 
turies ago, is thought good historical evidence. 

By making this change, some of the suspensions are 
avoided and others shortened: while there is less liabil- 
ity to produce premature conceptions. The passage 
quoted below from ‘‘ Paradise Lost” affords a fine in- 
stance of a sentence well arranged; alike in the priority 
of the subordinate members, in the avoidance of long 
and numerous suspensions, and in the correspondence 
between the order of the clauses and the sequence of the 
phenomena described, which by the way, is a further 
prerequisite to easy comprehension, and therefore to 
effect. 

‘“‘As when a prowling wolf, 
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, 
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve 
In hurdled cotes amid the field secure, 
Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold: 


Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash 
Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLEZ. 19 


Cross-barr’d, and bolted fast, fear no assault, 
In at the window climbs, or o’er the tiles: 

So clomb the first grand thief into God’s fold; 
So since into his church lewd hirelings climb.” 

The habitual use of sentences in which all or most of 
the descriptive and limiting elements precede those de- 
scribed and limited, gives rise to what is called the in- 
verted style: a title which is, however, by no means 
confined to this structure, but is often used where the 
order of the words is simply unusual. A more appro- 
priate title would be the direct style, as contrasted with 
the other, or ¢ndirect style: the peculiarity of the one 
being, that it conveys each thought into the mind step 
by step with little liability to error; and of the other, 
that it gets the right thought conceived by a series of 
approximations. 

The superiority of the direct over the indirect form of 
sentence, implied by the several conclusions that have 
been drawn, must not, however, be affirmed without 
reservation. Though, up to a certain point, it is well 
for the qualifying clauses of a period to precede those 
qualified, yet as carrying forward each qualifying 
clause costs some mental effort, it follows that when 
the number of them and the time they are carried be- 
come great, we reach a limit beyond which more is lost 
than is gained. Other things equal, the arrangement 
should be such that no concrete image shall be suggest- 
ed until the materials out of which it isto be made have 
been presented. And yet, as lately pointed out, other 
things equal, the fewer the materials to be held at once, 
and the shorter the distance they have to be borne, the 
better. Hence in some cases it becomes a question 
whether most mental effort will be entailed by the many 
and long suspensions, or by the correction of successive 
misconceptions. 


20 THE HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


This question may sometimes be decided by consider- 
ing the capacity of the persons addressed. A greater 
grasp of mind is required for the ready comprehension 
of thoughts expressed in the direct manner, where the 
sentences are anywise intricate. To recollect a number 
of preliminaries stated in elucidation of a coming idea, 
and to apply them all to the formation of it when sug- 
gested, demands a good memory and considerable power 
of concentration. To one possessing these, the direct 
method will mostly seem the best; while to one de- 
ficient in them it will seem the worst. Just as it may 
cost a strong man less effort to carry a hundred-weight 
from place to place at once, than by a stone at a time, 
so to an active mind it may be easier to bear along all 
the qualifications of an idea and at once rightly form it 
when named, than to first imperfectly conceive such 
idea and then carry back to it, one by one, the details 
and limitations afterwards mentioned. While converse- 
ly, as for a boy the only possible mode of transferring 
a hundred-weight is that of taking it in portions, so 
for a weak mind the only possible mode of forming a 
compound conception may be that of building it up by 
carrying separately its several parts. 

That the indirect method—the method of conveying 
the meaning by a series of approximations—is best fitted 
for the uncultivated, may indeed be inferred from their 
habitual use of it. The form of expression adopted by 
the savage, as in—‘‘ Water, give me,” is the simplest 
type of the approximate arrangement. In pleonasms, 
which are comparatively prevalent among the unedu- 
cated, the same essential structure is seen; as, for 
instance, in—‘‘ The men, they were there.” Again, the 
old possessive case— ‘‘ The king, his crown,” conforms to 
the like order of thought. Moreover, the fact that the 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 21 


indirect mode is called the natural one, implies that it is 
the one spontaneously employed by the common people: 
that is—the one easiest for undisciplined minds. 

There are many cases, however, in which neither the 
direct nor the indirect structure is the best; but where 
an intermediate structure is preferable to both. When 
the number of circumstances and qualifications to be in- 
cluded in the sentence is great, the most judicious course 
is neither to enumerate them all before introducing the 
idea to which they belong, nor to put this idea first and 

let it be remodelled to agree with the particulars after- 
’ wards mentioned; but to do a little of each. Take a 
case. It is desirable to avoid so extremely indirect an 
arrangement as the following: 

‘‘We came to our journey’s end, at last, with no 
small difficulty, after much fatigue, through deep roads, 
and bad weather.” 

Yet to transform this into an entirely indirect sen- 
tence. would not produce a satisfactory effect; as wit- 
ness: 

——At last, with no small difficulty, after much 
fatigue, through deep roads, and bad weather, we came 
to our journey’s end. 

Dr. Whately, from whom we quote the first of these 
two arrangements, proposes this construction: 

“At last, after much fatigue, through deep roads and 
bad weather, we came, with no small difficulty, to our 
journey’s end.” 

Here it will be observed that by introducing the words 
‘‘we came’’ a little earlier in the sentence, the labor of 
carrying forward so many particulars is diminished, and 
the subsequent qualification ‘‘ with no small difficulty” 
entails an addition to the thought that is very easily 
made. But a further improvement may be produced. 


22 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


by introducing the words ‘‘we came” still earlier; 
especially if at the same time the qualifications be re- 
arranged in conformity with the principle already ex- 
plained, that the more abstract elements of the thought 
should come before the more concrete. Observe the 
better effect obtained by making these two changes: © 

— At last, with no small difficulty, and after much 
fatigue, we came, through deep roads and bad weather, 
to our journey’s end. 

This reads with comparative smoothness; that is, with 
less hindrance from suspensions and reconstructions of 
thought—with less mental effort. 

Before dismissing this branch of our subject, it should 
’ be further remarked, that even when addressing the 
most vigorous intellects, the direct style is unfit for 
communicating ideas of a complex or abstract character. 
So long as the mind has not much to do, it may be well 
able to grasp all the preparatory clauses of a sentence, 
and to use them effcctively; but if some subtlety in the 
argument absorb the attention—if every faculty be 
strained in endeavoring to catch the speaker’s or writer's 
drift, it may happen that the mind, unable to carry on 
both processes at once, will break down, and allow the 
elements of the thought to lapse into confusion. 


IIl.—THE EFFECT OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE EX- 
PLAINED. 


Turning now to consider figures of speech, we may 
equally discern the same general law of effect. Under- 
lying all the rules given for the choice and right-use of 
them, we shall find the same fundamental requirement 
—economy of attention. It is, indeed, chiefly because 
they so well subserve this requirement, that figures of 
Speech are employed. To bring the mind more easily 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 23 


to the desired conception, is in many cases solely, and 
in all cases mainly, their object. 

Let us begin with the figure called Synechdoche, The 
advantage sometimes gained by putting a part for the 
whole is due to the more convenient, or more accurate, 
presentation of the idea. If, instead of saying ‘‘a fleet 
of ten ships,” we say ‘‘a fleet of ten saz/,” the picture 
of a group of vessels at sea is more readily suggested; 
and is so because the sails constitute the most conspicu- 
ous parts of vessels so circumstanced, whereas the word 
ships would very likely remind us of vessels in dock, 
Again, to say ‘‘All hands to the pumps” is better than 
to say ‘‘ All men to the pumps,” as it suggests the men 
in the special attitude intended, and so saves effort. 
Bringing ‘‘gray hairs with sorrow to the grave” is an- 
other expression, the effect of which has the same cause. 

The occasional increase of force produced by Met- 
onymy may be similarly accounted for. ‘‘The low 
morality of the bar” is a phrase both more brief and 
significant than the literal one it stands for. A belief 
in the ultimate supremacy of intelligence over brute 
force, is conveyed ina more conerete and therefore more 
realizable form, if we substitute the pen and the sword 
for the two abstract terms. To say ‘‘ Beware of drink- 
ing!” is less effective than to say ‘‘ Beware of the bottle!” 
and is so, clearly, because it calls up a less specific 
image. 

The Simile is in many cases used chiefly with a view 
to ornament, but whenever it increases the force of a 
passage, it does so by being an economy. Here is an 
instance: 

The illusion that great men and great events 
came oftener in early times than now, is partly due to 
historical perspective. As in a range of equidistant 


24 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


columns, the furthest off look the closest, so the con- 
spicuous objects of the past seem more thickly clustered — 
the more remote they are. 

To construct by a process of literal explanation, the 
thought thus conveyed would take many sentences, and 
the first elements of the picture would become faint 
_ while the imagination was busy in adding the others. 

‘But by the help of a comparison all effort is saved—the 
picture is instantly realized and its full effect produced. 

Of the position of the Simile,* it needs only to remark 
that what has been said respecting the order of the ad- 
jective and substantive, predicate and subject, principal 
and subordinate propositions, etc., is applicable here. 
As whatever qualifies should precede whatever is quali- 
fied, force will generally be gained by placing the simile 
before the object to which it is applied. That this 
arrangement is the best, may be seen in the following 
passage from the ‘‘ Lady of the Lake”: 

““ As wreath of snow, on mountain breast, 

Slides from the rock that gave it rest, 

Poor Ellen glided from her stay, 

And at the monarch’s feet she lay.”’ 
Inverting these couplets will be found to diminish the 
effect considerably. There are cases, however, even 
where the simile is a simple one, in which it may with 
advantage be placed last, asin these lines from Alex- 
ander Smith’s ‘‘ Life Drama”: 


**T see the future stretch 
All dark and barren as a rainy sea.” 

* Properly, the term “ simile’’ is applicable only to the entire 
figure, inclusive of the two things compared and the comparison 
drawn between them. But as there exists no name for the illus- 
trative member of the figure, there seems no alternative but to 
employ ‘‘ simile’ to express this also. This context will, in each 
case, show in which sense the word is used, 


~~ 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 28 

The reason for this seems to be that so abstract an idea 
as that attaching to the word ‘‘future” does not present 
itself to the mind in any definite form, and hence the 
subsequent arrival at the simile entails no reconstruc- 
tion of the thought. 

Such, however, are not the only cases in which this 
order is the most forcible. As the advantage of putting 
the simile before the object depends on its being carried 
forward in the mind to assist in forming an image of 
the object, it must happen that if, from length or com- 
plexity, it cannot be so carried forward, the advantage 
is not gained. The annexed sonnet, by Coleridge, is 
defective from this cause: 

““As when a child, on some long Winter’s night, 
Affrighted, clinging to its grandam’s knees, 
With eager wond’ring and perturb’d delight 
Listens strange tales of fearful dark decrees, 
Mutter’d to wretch by necromantic spell; 

Or of those hags who at the witching time 

Of murky midnight, ride the air sublime, 

And mingle foul embrace with fiends of hell; 
Cold horror drinks its blood! Anon the tear 
More gentle starts, to hear the beldame tell 

Of pretty babes, that lov’d each other dear, 
Murder’d by cruel uncle’s mandate fell: 

Ev’n such the shiv’ring joys thy tones impart, 
Ev’n so, thou, Siddons, meltest my sad heart.”’ 

Here, from the lapse of time and accumulation of 
circumstances, the first part of the comparison is forgot- 
ten before its application is reached, and requires re- 
reading. Had the main idea been first mentioned, less 
effort would have been required to retain it and to 
modify the conception of it into harmony with the 
comparison than to remember the comparison and refer 
back to its successive features for help in forming the 


final image. 


26 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 

The superiority of the Metaphor to the Simile is as- 
cribed by Dr. Whately to the fact that ‘‘all men are 
more gratified at catching the resemblance for them- 
selves than in having it pointed out tothem.” Butafter 
what has been said, the great economy it achieves will 
seem the more probable cause. Lear’s exclamation— 


“Ingratitule! thou marble-hearted fiend,” 
would lose part of its effect were it changed into— 
“Ingratitude! thou fiend with heart like marble;” 


and the loss would result partly from the position of the 
simile and partly from the extra number of words re- 
quired. When the comparison is an involved one, the 
greater force of the metaphor, consequent on its greater 
brevity, becomes much more conspicuous, If, drawing 
an analogy between mental and physical phenomena, 
" we say, 

As, in passing through the crystal, beams of white 
light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow; so, 
in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorless rays of 
truth are transformed into brightly tinted poetry ;—— 
it is clear that in receiving the double set of words ex- 
pressing the two halves of the comparison, and in car- 
rying the one half to the other, considerable attention is 
absorbed. Most of this is saved, however, by putting 
the comparsion in a metaphorical form, thus: 

——-The white light of truth, in traversing the many 
sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris- 
hued poetry. 

How much is conveyed in a few words by the help of 
the Metaphor, and how vivid the effect consequently 
produced, may be abundantly exemplified. From **A 
Life Drama” may be quoted the phrase, 

"I spear’d him with a jest,” 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 27 


as a fine instance among the many which that poem con- 
tains. A passage in the ‘‘ Prometheus Unbound,” of 
Shelley, displays the power of the Metaphor to great ad- 
vantage: 
**Methought among the lawns together 

We wandered underneath the young gray dawn, 

And multitudes of dense white fleecy clouds 

Were wandering in thick flocks along the mountains 

Shepherded by the slow unwilling wind.” 

This last expression is remarkable for the distinctness 
with which it realizes the features of the scene: bring- 
ing the mind, as it were, by a bound to the desired con- 
ception. 

But a limit is put to the advantageous use of the Meta- 
phor, by the condition that it must be sufficiently simple 
to be understood from a hint. Evidently, if there be 
any obscurity in the meaning or application of it, no 
economy of attention will be gained; but rather the re- 
verse. Hence, when the comparison is complex, it is 
usual to have recourse to the Simile. There is, however, 
a species of figure, sometimes classed under Allegory, 
but which might, perhaps, be better called Compound 
Metaphor, that enables us to retain the brevity of the 
metaphorical form even when the analogy is intricate. 
This is done by indicating the application of the figure 
at the outset, and then leaving the mind to continue the 
parallel. Emerson has employed it with great effect in 
the first of his ‘‘ Lectures on the Times”: 


“The main interest which any aspects of the times can have 
for us, is the great spirit which gazes through them, the light 
which they can shed on the wondcrful questions, What are we, 
and Whither do we tend? We do not wish tu be deceived. Here 
we drift, like white sail across the wild ocean, now bright on the 
wave, now darkling in the trough Of the sea; but from what port 
did we sail? Whoknows? Or to what port are we bound? Who 


28 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


knows? There is no one to tell us but such poor weather-tossed 
mariners as ourselves, whom we speak as we pass, or who have 
hoisted some signal, or floated to us some letters in a bottle from 
afar. But what know they more than we? They also found 
themselves on this wondrous sea. No; from the older sailors no- 
thing. Over all their speaking trumpets the gray sea and the 
loud winds answer—Not in us; not in Time.” 


The division of the Simile from the Metaphor is by 
no means a definite one. Between the one extreme in 
which the two elenients of the comparison are detailed 
at full length and the analogy pointed out, and the other 
extreme in which the comparison is implied instead of 
stated, come intermediate forms, in which the compari- 
son is partly stated and partly implied. Tor instance: 
Astonished at the performances of the English 
plough, the Hindoos paint it, set it up, and worship it; 
thus turning a tool into an idol: linguists do the same 
with language. 

There is an evident advantage in leaving the reader 
or hearer to complete the figure. And generally these 
intermediate forms are good in proportion as they do 
this; provided the mode of completing it be obvious. 

Passing over much that may be said of like purport 
upon Hyperbole, Personification, Apostrophe, etc., let 
us close our remarks upon a construction by a typical 
example. The general principle which has been enun- 
ciated is, that other things equal, the force of all verbal 
forms and arrangements is great, in proportion as the 
time and mental effort they demand for the recipient is 
small. The corollaries from this general principle have 
been severally illustrated; and it has been shown that 
the relative goodness of any two modes of expressing an 
idea, may be determined by observing which requires 
the shortest process of thought for its comprehension. 
But though conformity in particular points has been 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 29 


exemplified, no cases of complete conformity have yet 
been quoted. It is indeed difficult to find them; for the 
English idiom does not commonly permit the order 
which theory dictates. A few, however, occur in Os- 
sian. Here is one: 

“As Autumn’s dark storm pours from two echoing hills, sO. 
towards each other approached the heroes. As twodark streams 
from high rocks meet and mix, and roar on the plain: loud, rough, 
and dark in battle meet Lochlin and Inisfail. . . . As the 
troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; as the 
last peal of the thunder of heaven; such is noise of the battle.” 

Except in the position of the verb in the first two 
similes, the theoretically best arrangement is fully carried 
out in each of these sentences. ‘The simile comes before 
the qualified image, the adjectives before the substan- 
tives, the predicate and copula before the subject, and 
their respective complements before them. That the 
passage is open to the charge of being bombastic proves 
nothing; or rather, proves our case. For what is bom- 
bast but a force of expression too great for the magni- 
tude of the ideas embodied? All that may rightly be in- 
ferred is, that only in very rare cases, and then only to 
produce a climax, should al the conditions of effective 
expression be fulfilled. 


Ill. ARRANGEMENT OF MINOR IMAGES IN BUILDING UP 
A THOUGHT. 


Passing on to a more complex application of the doc- 
trine with which we set out, it must now be remarked, 
that not only in the structure of sentences, and the use 
of figures of speech, may economy of the recipient’s 
mental energy be assigned as the cause of force; but 
that in the choice and arrangement of the minor images, 
out of which some large thought is to be built up, we 


80 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


may trace the same condition to effect. To select from 
the sentiment, scene, or event described, those typical 
elements which carry many others along with them, 
and so, by saying a few things but suggesting many, to 
abridge the description, is the secret of producing a 
vivid impression. An extract from Tennyson’s ‘‘ Mari- 
ana” will well illustrate this: 


** All day within the dreamy house, 
The door upon the hinges creaked, 
The blue fly sung i’ the pane ; the mouse 
Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked, 
Or from the crevice peered about.” 


The several circumstances here specified bring with 
them many appropriate associations. Our attention is 
rarely drawn by the buzzing of a fly in the window, 
save when everything is still. While the inmates are 
moving about the house, mice usually keep silence; 
and it is only when extreme quietness reigns that they 
peep from their retreats. Hence each of the facts men- 
tioned presupposes numerous others, calls up these 
with more or less distinctness, and revives the feeling 
of dull solitude with which they are connected in our 
experience. Were all these facts detailed instead of 
suggested, our attention would be so frittered away that 
little impression of dreariness would be produced. 
Similarly in other cases. Whatever the nature of the 
thought to be conveyed, this skilful selection of a few 
particulars which imply the rest, is the key to success. 
In the choice of competent ideas, as in the choice of ex- 
pressions, the aim must be to convey the greatest quan- 
tity of thoughts with the smallest quantity of words. 

The same principle may in some cases be advanta- 
geously carried yet further, by indirectly suggesting 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 81 


some entirely distinct thought in addition to the one ex- 
pressed. Thus, if we say, 

——tThe head of a good classic is as full of ancient 
myths, as that of a servant-girl of ghost stories; 
it is manifest that besides the fact asserted, there is an 
implied opinion respecting the small value of classical 
knowledge: and as this implied opinion is recognized 
much sooner than it can be put into words, there is gain 
in omitting it. In other cases, again, great effect is 
produced by an overt omission; provided the nature of 
the idea left out is obvious. A good instance of this 
occurs in ‘‘ Heroes and Hero-worship.” After describ- 
ing the way in which Burns was sacrificed to the idle 
curiosity of Lion-hunters—people who came not out of 
sympathy but merely to see him—people who sought a 
little amusement, and who got their amusement while 
‘the Hero’s life went for it!” Carlyle suggests a par- 
allel thus: 

‘‘Richter says, in the Island of Sumatra there is a 
kind of ‘ Light-chafers,’ large Fire-flies, which people 
stick upon spits, and illuminate the ways with at night. 
Persons of condition can thus travel with a pleasant ra- 
diance, which they much admire. Great honor to the 
Fire-flies! But—!—” 


IV.—THE SUPERIORITY OF POETRY TO PROSE EXPLAINED. 


Before inquiring whether the law of effect, thus far 
traced, explains the superiority of poetry to prose, it 
will be needful to notice some supplementary causes of 
force in expression, that have not yet been mentioned. 
These are not, properly speaking, additional causes; 
but rather secondary ones, originating from those al- 
ready specified—reflex results of them. In the first 
place, then, we may remark that mental excitement 


82 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


spontaneously prompts the use of those forms of speech 
which have been pointed out as the most effective. 
‘‘Qut with him!” ‘‘ Away with him!” are the natural 
utterances of angry citizens at a disturbed meeting. A 
voyager, describing a terrible storm he had witnessed, 
would rise to some such climax as—‘‘ Crack went the 
ropes and down came the mast.” Astonishment may 
be heard expressed in the phrase—‘‘ Never was there 
such a sight!” All of which sentences are, it will be 
observed, constructed after the direct type. Again, 
every one knows that excited persons are given to fig- 
ures of speech. The vituperation of the vulgar abounds 
with them: often, indeed, consists of little else. 
“ Beast,” ‘‘ brute,” gallows rogue,” ‘‘ cut-throat villain,” 
these, and other like metaphors and metaphorical epi- 
thets, at once call to mind a street quarrel. Further, it 
may be noticed that extreme brevity is another charac- 
teristic of passionate language. The sentences are gen- 
erally incomplete; the particles are omitted; and fre- 
quently important words are left to be gathered from 
the context. Great admiration does not vent itself in a 
precise proposition, as—‘‘It is beautiful;” but in the 
simple exclamation—‘‘ Beautiful!’ He who, when 
reading a lawyer’s letter, should say, ‘‘ Vile rascal!” 
would be thought angry; while, ‘‘ He is a vile ras- 
cal!” would imply comparative coolness. Thus we see 
that alike in the order of the words, in the frequent use 
of figures, and in extreme conciseness, the natural ut- 
terances of excitement conform to the theoretical condi- 
tions of forcible expression. 

Hence, then, the higher forms of speech acquire a 
secondary strength from association. Having, in act- 
ual life, habitually heard them in connection with vivid 
mental impressions, and having been accustomed to 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 33 


meet with them in the most powerful writing, they 
come to have in themselves a species of force. The 
emotions that have from time to time been produced by 
the strong thoughts wrapped up in these forms, are par- 
linlly aroused by the forms themselves. They create 
a certain degree of animation; they induce a prepara. 
tory sympathy, and when the striking ideas looked for 
are reached, they are the more vividly realized. 

The continuous use of these modes of expression, 
that are alike forcible in themselves and forcible from 
their associations, produces the peculiarly impressive 
species of composition which we call poetry. Poetry, 
we shall find, habitually adopts those symbols of 
thought and those methods of using them which instinct 
and analysis agree in choosing as most effective, and 
becomes poetry by virtue of doing this. On turning 
back to the various specimens that have been quoted, it 
will be seen that the direct or inverted form of sentence 
predominates in them, and that to a degree quite inad- 
missible in prose. And not only in the frequency, but 
in what is termed the violence of the inversions, will 
this distinction be remarked. In the abundant use of 
figures, again, we may recognize the same truth. Met- 
aphors, similes, hyperboles and personifications are the 
poet’s colors, which he has liberty to employ almost 
without limit. We characterize as ‘‘ poetical ” the prose 
which uses these appliances of language with any fre- 
quency, and condemn it as ‘‘over-florid” or ‘‘ affected” 
long before they occur with the profusion allowed in 
verse. Further, let it be remarked that in brevity—the 
other requisite of forcible expression which theory points 
out and emotion spontaneously fulfils—poetical phrase- 
ology similarly differs from ordinary phraseology. Im- 
perfect periods are freqtient, elisions are perpetual, and 


84 THH ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


many of the minor words, which would be deemed es- 
sential in prose, are dispensed with. 

Thus, poetry, regarded as a vehicle of thought, is es- 
pecially impressive, partly because it obeys all the laws 
of effective speech, and partly because in so doing it 
imitates the natural utterances of excitement. While 
the matter embodied is idealized emotion, the vehicle is 
the idealized language of emotion. As the musical 
composer catches the cadences in which our feelings of 
joy and sympathy, grief and despair vent themselves, 
and out of these germs evolves melodies suggesting 
higher phases of these feelings, so the poet develops 
from the typical expressions in which men utter passion 
and sentiment those choice forms of verbal combination 
in which concentrated passion and sentiment may be 
filly presented. 

There is one peculiarity of poetry conducing much 
to its effect—the peculiarity which is, indeed, usually 
thought its characteristic one—still remaining to be 
considered; we mean its rhythmical structure. This, 
improbable though it seems, will be found to come 
under the same generalization with the others. Like 
each of them, it is an idealization of the natural lan- 
guage of strong emotion, which is known to be more or 
less metrical if the emotion be not too violent, and like 
each of them, it is an economy of the reader’s or hear- 
er’s attention. In the peculiar tone and manner we 
adopt in uttering versified language, may be discerned 
its relationship to the feelings, and the pleasure which 
its measured movement gives us is ascribable to the 
comparative ease with which words metrically arranged 
can be recognized. 

This ast position will scarcely be at once admitted; 
but a little explanation will show its reasonableness, 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 85 


For if, as we have seen, there is an expenditure of men- 
tal energy in the mere act of listening to verbal articu- 
lations, or in that silent repetition of them which goes 
on in reading—if the perceptive faculties must be in ac- 
tive exercise to identify every syllable—then any mode 
of so combining words as to present a regular recurrence 
of certain traits which the mind can anticipate, will di- 
minish that strain upon the attention required by the 
total irregularity of prose. Just as the body, in receiv- 
ing a series of varying concussions, must keep the mus- 
cles ready to meet the most violent of them, as not 
knowing when such may come, so the mind, in receiv- 
ing unarranged articulations, must keep its perceptives 
active enough to recognize the least easily caught 
sounds. And as, if the concussions recur in a definite 
order, the body may husband its forces by adjusting 
the resistance needful for each concussion, so, if the 
syllables be rhythmically arranged, the mind may econ- 
omize its energies by anticipating the attention required 
for each syllable. 

Far-fetched though this idea will perhaps be thought, 
a little introspection will countenance it. That we do 
take advantage of metrical language to adjust our per- 
ceptive faculties to the force of the expected articula- 
tions, is clear from the fact that we are balked by halt- 
ing versification. Much as at the bottom of a flight of 
stairs, a step more or less than we counted upon gives 
us a shock, so, too, does a misplaced accent or a super- 
numerary syllable. In the one case, we know that 
there is an erroneous preadjustment; and we can scarcely 
doubt that there is one in the other. Butif we habitually 
preadjust our perceptions to the measured movement of 
verse, the physical analogy above given renders it prob- 
able that by so doing’ we economize attention; and 


36 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


hence that metrical language is more effective than 
prose, because it enables us to do this. 

Were there space, it might be worth while to inquire 
whether the pleasure we take in rhyme, and also that 
which we take in euphony, are not partly ascribable to 
the same general cause. 


PART IT. 


Causes of Force in Language which Depend upon Hcon- 
omy of the Mental Sensibilities, 


A FEw paragraphs only can be devoted to a second 
division of our subject that here presents itself. To 
pursue in detail the laws of effect, as applying to the 
larger features of composition, would carry us beyond 
our limits. But we may briefly indicate a further as- 
pect of the general principle hitherto traced out, and 
hint a few of its wider applications. 

Thus far, then, we have considered only those causes 
of force in language which depend upon economy of the 
mental energies: we have now to glance at those which 
flepend upon economy of the mental sensibilities. Ques- 
tionable though this division may be as a psychological 
pne, it will yet serve roughly to indicate the remaining 
field of investigation. It will suggest that besides con- 
sidering the extent to which any faculty or group of 
faculties is tasked in receiving a form of words and re- 
alizing its contained idea, we have to consider the state 
in which this faculty or group of faculties is left; and 
how the reception of subsequent sentences and images 
will be influenced by that state. Without going at 
length into so wide a topic as the exercise of faculties 


THH PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 37 


and its reactive effects, it will be sufficient here to call 
to mind that every faculty (when in a state of normal 
activity) is most capable at the outset; and that the 
change in its condition, which ends in what we term 
exhaustion, begins simultaneously with its exercise. 
This generalization, with which we are all familiar in 
our bodily experiences, and which our daily language 
recognizes as true of the mind as a whole, is equally 
true of each mental power, from the simplest of the 
senses to the most complex of the sentiments. If we 
hold a flower to the nose for long, we become insensible 
to its scent. We say of a very brilliant flash of light- 
ning that it blinds us; which means that our eyes have 
for a time lost their ability to appreciate light. After 
eating a quantity of honey, we are apt to think our tea 
is without sugar. The phrase ‘‘a deafening roar,” im- 
plies that men find a very loud sound temporarily inca- 
pacitates them for hearing faint ones. Toahand which 
has for some time carried a heavy body, small bodies 
afterwards lifted seem to have lost their weight. Now, 
the truth at once recognized in these, its extreme mani- 
festations, may be traced throughout. It may beshown 
that alike in the reflective faculties, in the imagination, 
in the perceptions of the beautiful, the ludicrous, the 
sublime, in the sentiments, the instincts, in all the men 
tal powers, however we may classify them—action ex- 
hausts; and that in proportion as the action is violent, 
the subsequent prostration is great. 

Equally, throughout the whole nature, may be traced 
the law that exercised faculties are ever tending to re- 
sume their original state. Not only after continued 
rest do they regain their full power—not only do brief 
cessations partially reinvigorate them; but even while 
they are in action, the resulting exhaustion isever being 


38 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


neutralized. The two processes of waste and repair go 
on together. Hence with faculties habitually exercised 
—as the senses of all persons, or the muscles of any one 
who is strong—it happens that, during moderate activ- 
ity, the repair is so nearly equal to the waste, that the 
diminution of power is scarcely appreciable; and it is 
only when the activity has been long continued, or has 
been very violent, that the repair becomes so far in ar- 
rear of the waste as to produce a perceptible prostra- 
tion. In all cases, however, when, by the action of a 
faculty, waste has been incurred, some lapse of time 
must take place before full efficiency can be reacquired; 
and this time must be long in proportion as the waste 
has been great. 

Keeping in mind these general truths, we shall be in 
a condition to understand certain causes of effect in 
composition now to be considered. Every perception 
received, and every conception realized, entailing some 
amount of waste—or, as Liebig would say, some change 
of matter in the brain—and the efficiency of the facul- 
ties subject to this waste being thereby temporarily, 
though often but momentarily, diminished, the re- 
sulting partial inability must affect the acts of 
perception and conception that immediately suc- 
ceed. And hence we may expect that the vividness 
with which images are realized will, in many cases, de- 
pend on the order of their presentation: even when one 
order is as convenient to the understanding as the 
other. 

There are sundry facts which alike illustrate this, and 
are explained by it. Climax is one of them. The 
marked effect obtained by placing last the most striking 
of any series of images, and the weakness—often the lu- 
dicrous weakness—produced by reversing this arrange- 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 39 


ment, depends on the general Jaw indicated. As imme- 
diately after looking at the sun we cannot perceive the 
light of a fire, while by looking at the fire first and the 
sun afterwards we can perceive both, so, after receiv- 
a brilliant, or weighty, or terrible thought, we cannot ap- 
preciate a less brilliant, less weighty, or less terrible one, 
while, by reversing the order, we can appreciate each. 
In Antithesis, again, we may recognize the same gener- 
al truth. The opposition of two thoughts that are the 
reverse of each other in some prominent trait, insures 
an impressive effect; and does this by giving a momen- 
tary relaxation to the faculties addressed. lf, after a 
series of images of an ordinary character, appealing in 
a moderate degree to the sentiment of reverence, or ap- 
probation, or beauty, the mind has presented to it a 
very insignificant, a very unworthy, or a very ugly im- 
age, the faculty of reverence, or approbation, or beauty, 
as the case may be, having for the time nothing to do, 
tends to resume its full power, and will immediately 
afterwards appreciate a vast, admirable, or beautiful 
image better than it would otherwise do. Conversely, 
where the idea of absurdity due to extreme insignifi- 
cance is to be produced, it may be greatiy intensified 
by placing it after something highly impressive: espe- 
cially if the form of phrase implies that something still 
more impressive is coming. A good illustration of the 
effect gained by thus presenting a petty idea to a con- 
sciousness that has not yet recovered from the shock of 
an exciting one, occurs in a sketch by Balzac. Hi. 
hero writes to a mistress who has cooled towards him 
the following letter: 


**Madame—Votre conduite m’étonne autant qu'elle m’‘afflige. 
Non contente de me déchirer le coeur par vos dédains, vous avez 
l'indélicatesse de me retenir une brosse 4 dents, que Mes moyens 


40 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


ne me permettent pas de remplacer, mes propri¢tés étant 
grevées d’hypothéques. 
** Adieu, trop belle et trop ingrate amie! Puissionsnous nous 
revoir dans un monde meilleur! 
‘* CHARLES-EDOUARD.”* 


Thus we see that the phenomena of Climax, Antithe- 
sis, and Anticlimax, alike result from this general prin- 
ciple. Improbable as these momentary variations in 
susceptibility may seem, we cannot doubt their occur- 
rence when we contemplate the analogous variations in 
the susceptibility of the senses. Referring once more 
to phenomena of vision, every one knows that a patch 
of black on a white ground looks blacker, and a patch 
of white on a black ground looks whiter, than else- 
where. As the blackness and the whiteness must really 
be the same, the only assignable cause for this is a dif- 
ference in their actions upon us, dependent upon the 
different states of our faculties. It is simply a visual 
antithesis. 

But this extension of the general principle of economy 
—this further condition to effective composition, that 
the sensitiveness of the faculties must be continuously 
husbanded—includes much more than has been yet 
hinted. It implies not only that certain arrangements 
and certain juxtapositions of connected ideas are best; 
but that some modes of dividing and presenting a sub- 
ject will be more striking than others; and that, too, ir- 
respective of its logical cohesion. It shows why we 
must progress from the less interesting to the more in- 
teresting; and why not only the composition as a whole, 
but each of its successive portions, should tend towards 
a climax. At the same time, it forbids long continuity 
of the same kind of thought, or repeated production of 
like effects. It warns us against the error committed 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 44 


both by Pope in his poems and by Bacon in his essays 
—the error, namely, of constantly employing forcible 
forms of expression: and it points out that as the easiest 
posture by-and-by becomes fatiguing, and is with pleas- 
ure exchanged for one less easy, so the most perfectly 
constructed sentences will soon weary, and relief will 
be given by using those of an inferior kind. 

Further, we may infer from it not only that should 
we avoid generally combining our words in one man- 
ner, however good, or working out our figures and illus- 
trations in one way, however telling; but that we should 
avoid anything like uniform adherence, even to the 
wider conditions of effect. We should not make every 
section of our subject progress in interest; we should 
not always rise to a climax. As we saw that, in single 
sentences, it is but rarely allowable to fulfil all the con- 
ditions to strength, so in the larger sections of a com- 
position we must not often conform entirely to the law 
indicated. We must subordinate the component effect 
to the total effect. 

In deciding how practically to carry out the principles 
of artistic composition, we may derive help by bearing 
in mind a fact already pointed out—the fitness of cer- 
tain verbal arrangements for certain kinds of thought. 
That constant variety in the mode of presenting ideas 
which the theory demands, will in a great degree result 
from a skilful adaptation of the form to the matter. 
We saw how the direct or inverted sentence is spon- 
taneously used by excited people; and how their lan- 
guage is also characterized by figures of speech and by 
extreme brevity. Hence these may with advantage pre- 
dominate in emotional passages, and may increase as 
the emotion rises. On the other hand, for complex 
ideas, the indirect sentence seems the best vehicle. In 


42 THE HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


conversation, the excitement produced by the near ap- 
proach to a desired conclusion, will often show itself in 
a series of short, sharp sentences; while, in impressing 
a view already enunciated, we generally make our 
periods voluminous: by piling thought upon thought. 
These natural modes of procedure may serve as guides 
in writing. Keen observation and skilful analysis 
would, in like manner, detect further peculiarities of 
expression produced by other attitudes of mind; and 
by paying due attention to all such traits, a writer pos- 
sessed of sufficient versatility might make some approach 
to a completely organized work. - 

This species of composition which the law of effect 
points out as the perfect one, is the one which high 
genius tends naturally to produce, As we found that 
the kinds of sentences which are theoretically best, are 
those generally employed by superior minds, and by 
inferior minds when excitement has raised them, so we 
shall find that the ideal form for a poem, essay, or fic- 
tion, is that which the ideal writer would evolve spon- 
taneously. One in whom the powers of expression fully 
responded to the state of feeling, wou'd unconsciously 
use that variety in the mode of presenting his thoughts 
which Art demands. This constant employment of one 
species of phraseology, which all have now to strive 
against, implies an undeveloped faculty of language. 
To have a specific style is to be poor in speech. If we 
remember that, in the far past, men had only nouns and 
verbs to convey their ideas with, and that from then to 
now the growth has been towards a greater number of 
implements of thought, and consequently towards a 
greater complexity and variety in their combinations, 
we may infer that we are now, in our use of sentences, 
much what the primitive man was in his use of words, 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE. 48 


and that a continuance of the process that has hitherto 
gone on must produce increasing heterogencity in our 
modes of expression. As now, in a fine nature, the play 
of the features, the tones of the voice and its cadences, 
vary in harmony with every thought uttered, so in one 
possessed of a fully developed power of specch, the 
mould in which each combination of words is cast will 
similarly vary with and be appropriate to the senti- 
ment, 

That a perfectly endowed man must unconsciously 
write in all styles, we may infer from considering how 
styles originate. Why is Johnson pompous, Goldsmith 
simple? Why is one author abrupt, another rhythmi- 
cal, another concise? Evidently in each case the habit- 
ual mode of utterance must depend upon the habitual 
balance of the nature. The predominant feelings lave 
by use trained the intellect to represent them. But 
while long, though unconscious, discipline has made it 
do this efficiently, it remains, from lack of practice, in- 
capable of doing the same for the less active feclings; 
and when these are excited, the usual verbal forms un- 
dergo but slight modifications, Let the powers of speech 
be fully developed, however—let the ability of the in- 
tellect to utter the emotions be complete, and this fixity 
of style will disappear. The perfect writer will express 
himself as Junius, when in the Junius frame of mind; 
when he feels as Lamb felt, wilk use a like familiar 
speech; and will fall into the ruggedness of Carlyle when 
in a Carlylean mood, Now he will be rhythmical and 
now irregular; here his language will be plain and there 
ornate; sometimes his sentences will be balaneed and at 
other times unsymmetrical; for a while there will be 
considerable sameness, and then again great varicty. 
His mode of expression naturally responding to his 


Ae THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 

state of feeling, there will flow from his pen a compo- 
sition changing to the same degree that the aspects of 
his subject change. He will thus without effort con- 
form to what we have seen to be the laws of effect. 
And while his work presents to the reader that variety 
needful to prevent continuous exertion of the same 
faculties, it will also answer to the description of all 
highly organized products, both of man and of nature: 
it will be not a series of like parts simply placed in jux- 
taposition, but one whole made up of unlike parts that 
are mutually dependent, 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 


ON THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA MINOR— PHRYGIA, 
LYDIA, LYCIA, THE TROAS. 


AmoneG the nations which claimed to have existed 
from the remotest times, and which even ventured to 
dispute the palm of antiquity with Egypt, it is some- 
what surprising to find the small and not very distin- 
guished state of Phrygia. Phrygia was an inland 
tract, occupying the central portion of Asia Minor, 
which is an elevated plateau, bounded north and south 
by mountain-chains, and intersected here and there by 
rocky ridges. From what date the Phrygian people 
had really been settled in this region is exceedingly 
uncertain, They had congeners in Thrace, and were 
believed by some to have immigrated from Europe 
into Asia within historical memory. But it is doubt- 
ful, on the whole, whether this migration has any 
solid grounds to rest upon; and quite certain that, if a 
fact, it must be one belonging to very remote times, 
long anterior to the dawn of history. The interior of 
Asia Minor is known as Phrygia to Homer, and no hint 
is given by him of its inhabitants being newly come 
into the region. Priam had in his youth helped them 
when they were attacked by the Amazons, and speaks 
of them as if they were then (about B.c. 1300) the 
most powerful people of the Peninsula. Their own 


4 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


traditions appear to have made them aztochthones, or 
aboriginals; and it would seem that they believed the 
repeopling of the earth after the flood to have begun in 
their country. Of course no great stress can be laid 
on such a tradition; but it is incompatible with any 
knowledge on their part of being recent immigrants 
into their territory. 

The civilization of the Phrygians was not of a high 
order. They were better known in the remoter times 
for their warlike qualities than for any progress which 
they had made in the useful or ornamental arts. Ho- 
mer celebrates their martial ardor, and the skill with 
which they managed their chariots, but says nothing of 
their occupations in peace, Other writers note their 
proficiency in boxing. As time went on, however, 
they developed a civilization, the impulse toward 
which may have been given from without, but which 
had features that were peculiar. They sculptured rock- 
tombs unlike any found elsewhere, and adorned them 
with an elegant patterning, accompanied by inscrip- 
tions. They invented a musical style of a stirring and 
martial character, which was adopted as one of their 
main styles by the’Greeks. They applied themselves, 
if we may believe Diodorus, to nautical matters, and 
for the space of twenty-five years held the command 
of the Mediterranean Sea. One of their tribes distin- 
guished itself in metallurgy, and from their wonderful 
skill acquired the reputation of being magicians. In 
connection with their music they composed odes and 
hymns, which they used in their religious services, and 
which must have had considerable merit, if they really 
‘stimulated the development of lyric and elegiac com- 
position” among the Greeks of Asia. 

It will scarcely be argued at the present day that 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 5 


Phrygian civilization began at a very early date. We 
cannot really trace the nation further back than about 
B.c. 1300, for their name is absent from the Bible, and 
from the early cuneiform and hieroglyphical inscrip- 
tions. Homer is the most ancient authority of their 
existence; and Homer, as above remarked, represents 
them as a warlike but scarcely as a civilized people. 
Their written characters are evidently derived from the 
Phenician, and were probably communicated to them 
at the time of their naval supremacy, or about B.c. 
900-875. Their rock-sculptures are most likely later 
than this. The kind Midas, whose tomb and inscrip- 
tion still remain at Doganlu, near the ancient Coty- 
geum, is probably the monarch of the name whom 
Eusebius made a contemporary of Hezekiah (B.c. 726- 
697). He is, perhaps, the same with the Midas whom 
Herodotus mentions as the first foreigner to send 
offerings to Delphi; and he possibly may be the Mita 
whom Sargon speaks of as one of his West-Asian 
antagonists. It is not clear that a Phrygian monarchy 
had existed very long before this. In the Homeric 
times no king is mentioned; and the traditional Gor- 
dias, the founder of the kingdom, if he be a real 
personage, may have been the father of this Midas, and 
have ascended the throne about B.c. 750.. The most 
flourishing period of Phrygia must be placed between 
B.C. 750 and zB.c. 565. For centuries anterior to B.c, 
750 it had been an important military power—probably 
the chief power of Asia Minor; but we have no evi- 
dence of its condition at this period, and cannot say 
whether it was civilized or barbarous. 

The history of Lydia is carried back by ancient 
writers very consideraply beyond that of Phrygia. 
According to Herodotus, the country had been ruled : 


6 THH ELZHVIR LIBRARY. 


by three dynasties in succession before its conquest by 
Cyrus (B.C. 554)—the first of them sprung from a certain 
Lydus, son of Atys; the next descended from the 
Grecian Hercules, and known_as Heracleids; the third 
descended from Gyges, son of Dascylus, and known as 
Mermnads. To the Mermnad dynasty he assigned 170 
years; to the Heracleids 505 years; to the dynasty 
which preceded the Heracleids he could assign no 
definite duration—their origin was lost in the mists of 
antiquity, falling into the remote period when history 
melts into fable and legend. A settled monarchy had 
thus, according to the belief of Herodotus, existed in 
Lydia from a date at least as early as B.c. 1400; for we 
can scarcely allow to his first dynasty a less period than 
two centuries. The views of Herodotus are borne out 
to a certain extent by notices in other writers. Dio- 
dorus said that the Lydians had held the command of 
the Mediterranean for ninety-two years—from B.c. 1182 
to s.c. 1090. Xanthus, the Lydian, who wrote the 
history of his native country in Greek during the life- 
time of Herodotus, appears by his fragments to have 
recognized the three dynasties of that writer, and to 
have claimed for the Lydian kingdom at least as high 
an antiquity. Homer does not throw much light on 
the subject. He does not use the name of ‘‘ Lydians” 
nt all; but it is generally agreed that the Méones, 
vhom he brings from Mount Tmolus to the assistance 
of Priam, represent the Lydian people. 

It has commonly been allowed that Herodotus’s 
third, or Mermnad, dynasty is historical. Gyges, its 
first monarch, was contemporary with the Greek poet 
Archilochus, who mentioned him in his writings. He 
sent magnificent offerings to Delphi, which were seen 
by Herodotus, and which the priests called ‘‘ Gygian.” 


“~) 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. " 


Recently his name has been found in the inscriptions 
of the contemporary Assyrian monarch, Sardanapalus, 
who says that Gyges sent him presents, and accepted 
for a time the position of an Assyrian tributary. 
There is thus no shadow of doubt that a powerful and 
civilized monarchy was established on the west coast 
of Asia Minor at least as early as the beginning of the 
seventh century. 

With regard to the second, or Heracleid, dynasty, 
there is more doubt. That a family distinct from that 
of the Mermnads ruled in Lydia before the accession of 
Gyges may be pronounced certain; and the continuous 
list of six kings, preserved by Nicolas of Damascus 
and taken by him most probably from Xanthus, seems 
to deserve acceptance as historical. But beyond this 
all is uncertain. We do not know what authority the 
Lydian informants of Herodotus had for their state- 
ment that the second dynasty contained twenty-two 
kings in a direct line, whose reigns conjointly made up 
the number of 505 years. The statement itself is 
exceedingly improbable; and it seems on the whole 
unlikely that the Lydians of the fifth century B.c. were 
in possession of authentic records and of an exact 
chronology reaching back between 700 and 800 years. 
Their estimate can scarcely have been anything better 
than a rough guess at the time that the (so-called) 
Heracleid dynasty had lasted. It may easily have been 
something worse. It may have been an attempt to 
support by an apparant synchronism the idea of a con- 
nection between the royal houses of Assyria and Lydia, 
dating from the thirteenth century B.c., which some of 
the Lydians seem clearly to have asserted. But this 
supposed connection is probably a pure fiction, the 
offspring of national vanity, without any foundation in 


g THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


fact. Ifthe chronology was really invented to bolster 
up this figment, it does not deserve a moment’s con- 
sideration, but may be consigned at once to oblivion. 

As for the first Herodotean dynasty, its non-histori- 
eal character has been almost universally admitted. 
The kings assigned to it are clearly mythical person- 
ages, belonging, not to the nation’s history, but to its 
Pantheon. Manes is the heros eponymus of the Méo- 
nes, or Meones, Atys and Cotys are gods; Lydus and 
Asies are again eponymous heroes; Meles is an ideal 
founder of the capital. History begins at the earliest 
with the Heracleids; but scarcely with Agron, who is 
not more real than Brute the Trojan, or than Hengist 
and Horsa, sons of Witgils, and great-grandsons of 
Odin. We cannot trace the Heracleids further back 
than about B.c. 850; the dynasty may have commenced 
some centuries earlier, but we really know nothing of 
Lydia before the ninth century. 

From this time, however, if not even earlier, the 
Lydians appear to have been civilized. The wealth 
which Gyges boasted descended to him from the Herac- 
leid kings, who doubtless washed the sands of Pacto- 
lus, and worked the mines of Tmolus for many genera- 
tions. Commercial activity must have commenced and 
have made much progress under their sway, if, as 
seems tolerably certain, the invention of coined money 
was made by the Lydians during the time of their 
sovereignty. This invention implies a high degree of 
mercantile intelligence, and can scarcely have been 
made until commercial transactions with foreign na- 
tions had become both numerous and intricate. He- 
rodotus tells us that the Lydians, as far as he knew, 
were the first to engage in retail trade as a profession; 
and among the nations of Western Asia they were 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA, 9 


noted for industry, for mental activity, and for a 
readiness to hold intercourse with foreign countries. 
They were skilled in music, and originated a style of 
their own, which the Greeks regarded as soft and 
effeminate. They claimed to have invented a variety 
of games at a very remote period. They were ship- 
builders, and did not shrink from the perils of long 
voyages. In glyptic art their early coins show them 
to have made some progress, for the animal forms 
upon these coins have considerable merit. They were 
well acquainted with the art of squaring and polishing 
hard stone and marble. If the rock-sculptures existing 
in their country are to be ascribed to them, we must 
give them credit for some grandeur of conception, as 
well as for a power of executing such works under 
difficultics. 

A grandeur of conception is also evidenced by the 
most remarkable of all the Lydian works which are 
still extant. The barrow or tumulus is a somewhat 
rude and common construction, requiring no great 
mechanical skill, and possessing little impressiveness, 
unless it is of vast size. The Lydians having adopted 
this simple form, which appears also in the neighboring 
Troad, for the tombs of their kings, gave dignity and 
majesty to their works by the scale on which they con- 
structed them. The Jargest of them all, the famous 
“tomb of Alyattes,” Herodotus compares with the 
monuments of Egypt and Babylon. It was a conical 
mound, above a thousand feet in diameter, emplaced 
upon a basement of hewn stone, and crowned with five 
stele, or pillars, bearing inscriptions. It.covered more 
space than the great Pyramid, but can scarcely have 
had so great an elevation. In its centre it contained a 
sepulchral chamber, eleven feet Jong, eight broad, and 


10 THH ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


seven high, formed of large blocks of white marble 
highly polished. It stood on the snmmit of a range of 
limestone hills which skirts the valley of the Hermus 
on the north, and is still ‘‘a conspicuous object on all 
sides,” 

Herodotus speaks as if this tumulus had in his day 
stood alone. It is scarcely possible, however, that this 
was really so. The monument stands now in the 
midst of a necropolis of similar tombs, all of which are 
seemingly of at least equal antiquity. Modern travel- 
lers have counted more than sixty of these tumuli; and 
among them are three or four but little inferior in size 
to the ‘‘tomb of Alyattes.” These are, in all proba- 
bility, the tombs of other (previous) Lydian kings, 
whose works Alyattes determined to outdo when he 
raised his great sepulchre. The size and number of 
the tumuli render this Lydian necropolis a most impres- 
sive sight. ‘‘It is impossible,” says Mr. Hamilton, a 
traveller rarely moved to admiration, ‘‘to look upon 
this collection of gigantic mounds, three of which are 
distinguished by their superior size, without being 
struck with the power and enterprise of the people by. 
whom they were erected, and without admiring the 
energies of the nation who endeavored to preserve the 
memories of their kings and ancestors by means of 
such rude and lasting monuments.” 

Lydian civilization belongs, then (so far as appears), 
to the three centuries commencing B.c. 850, and termi- 
nating B.c. 550. Like Phrygian civilization, it was 
(apparently) of home growth, only very slightly affected 
by the influence of Egypt, or of Assyria, or even of 
Phenicia. The chief mark which is left behind was 
the invention of coined money, whereby it gave an 
impetus to trade and commerce that can scarcely be too 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 11 


highly appreciated. In other respects it was not a 
civilization of a high order. It did not affect literature, 
or science, or even art, otherwise than slightly. It 
probably, however, had some refining and softening 
influence on social intercourse and manners. Though 
the character of the Lydians for luxury and effeminacy 
belongs especially to later times, to the period when 
they had become subjects of the Persian or Macedonian 
monarchy, yet we may trace, under the independent 
kingdom, the germs of this soft temper. Anacreon, 
who lived at the time of the Persian conquest, and can 
scarcely have lived Jong enough to note a change of 
character produced by subjection, pointedly remarked 
upon it. It was alluded to by Sappho, his earlier 
contemporary. Herodotus, in his story of Gyges, in 
his account of Lydian manners during the reign of 
Alyattes, and in his description of the court of Croesus, 
implies it. Lydia must have played an important part 
in polishing and humanizing the Greeks, to whom they 
were for a century and a half the main representatives 
of Asiatic civilization. 

In the south-western corner of Asia Minor we have 
traces of a third civilization, which, though somewhat 
later than the two that we have been considering, is so 
united to them by locality, and so near to them in 
respect of time, as to render its conjunction with them 
in this review of early civilizations natural, if not 
necessary. Lycia extended along the southern coast of 
the peninsula from long. 28° 40’ to 30° 40’, comprising 
the fertile valleys of the Calbis and Xanthus, together 
with a large quantity of picturesque mountain country. 
It was inhabited by various warlike tribes, who main- 
tained their independence down to the time when 
Cyrus, having conquered Croesus (B.c. 554), com- 


12 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


manded his general, Harpagus, to complete the subju- 
gation of Asia Minor. Harpagus reduced the Lycians 
after encountering a desperate resistance, and ap- 
parently received as his reward the satrapy, or rather 
sub-satrapy, of Lycia, which continued to be held by 
his descendants for eighty or a hundred years as a 
hereditary fief. During this period we find a style of 
architecture and of glyptic art existing in the country, 
which is very surprising. The Lycians either carve 
themselves sepulchral chambers out of the solid rock, 
or build themselves tombs of large masses of squared 
stone, in each case fashioning their sepulchres after the 
form of either a temple or a house, and adorning them 
with bas-reliefs, which approach nearly to the excel- 
lence of the best Greek art. These early Lycian sculp- 
tures furnish*a most curious problem. They are so 
Greek in character as to suggest strongly the idea of 
Greek influence. But they are accompanied by Lycian 
inscriptions, and they belong apparently to a time when 
Persia, and not Greece, was mistress of the territory. 
The question arises, Did art make the leap from the 
sculptures of Assyria to those of Lycia in Asta, without 
the help of the Greeks? and was Greece indebted to 
Lycia for the great bulk of those high qualities which 
are usually regarded as exclusively characterizing the 
artistic productions of Hella? If so, the Lycians 
deserve to stand on a pedestal among the Asiatic 
nations, and to be regarded as constituting a most im- 
portant link in the long series whereby the torch of 
knowledge has been handed on from age to age, and 
the gains made in early times by primitive Asiatic races 
have become the heritage of Europe and the common 
possession of modern civilized nations. 

Nor are the Lycian sculptures important only as 


e 


THH CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 18 


indicating the high artistic excellence to which the 
nation had attained. They showed in the details of 
dress and furniture an advanced state of upholstery 
and of textile industry, which we should certainly not 
have expected to find among a people so little known 
and so seldom mentioned by ancient writers. We must 
conclude from the reliefs assigned to the middle of the 
sixth century B.c. that the Lycians were already, at 
the time of the Persian conquest, on a par with any 
other Asiatic nation, in the comforts and luxuries of 
life, while they excelled all other Asiatics in artistic 
merit and genius. 

It is in accordance with the general idea which we 
thus obtain of Lycian civilization, to find that the 
position of women in Lycia was much higher than that 
usually assigned to the weaker sex by the Orientals. 
Citizenship and nobility were transmitted in Lycia by 
the female line; and men, in tracing their genealogies, 
gave the list of their female and not of their male 
ancestors. Moreover, the Lycian sculptors freely ex- 
hibited the forms of women in their bas-reliefs, repre- 
senting them as unveiled before men, and as present 
with them at banquets. Herodotus, in close agreement 
With the monuments, notes this fact of the Caunians, 
who are proved by the inscriptions of their country to 
have been a mere branch of the Lycian people. 

The three civilizations of which we have hitherto 
treated in this chapter belong most probably to the 
‘space between B.c. 850 and B.c. 450. If they ascend 
any higher, it is impossible, for want of records, to 
trace them. We may, however, gather from Homer, 
and from certain modern researches, that in the north- 
western corner of the Peninsula a civilization of a some- 
what low type was established on the banks of the 


14 THE ELZEHEVIR LIBRARY. 


Scamander some four or five centuries earlier. 
Whether Dr. Schliemann’s discoveries are to be re. 
garded as having brought to light the veritable city 
whereof Homer sang or no, at any rate they prove the 
existence of metallurgic and ceramic skill, and of a 
certain amount of ingenuity and taste in ornament ata 
very remote date, prior to the introduction of letters, 
and while flint and stone instruments were still em- 
ployed, to a large extent, in the district where Troy 
must have stood—the broad plain bounded by hills, 
which is watered by the two streams of the Scamander 
and the Simois. If not the actual relics of the city of 
Priam, they indicate probably what the relics of that 
city would be if we were to find them, and what the 
character of its civilization was. We cannot agree 
with Dr. Schliemann that his discoveries reveal ‘‘a 
great civilization and a great taste for art.” What we 
find is a knowledge of metallurgy sufficient to produce 
cups, vases, ornaments, and implements, some of which 
are cast, some wrought by the hammer, some brought 
into their actual shape by a fusing together of their 
pieces; an acquaintance with the method of hardening 
copper by uniting it with an alloy of tin; a power of 
producing terra-cotta jars of a good quality, and as 
much as two feet in height; a tolerable taste in personal 
ornament, especially shown in female head-dresges, in 
bracelets, and in ear-rings; a fair skill in masonry; and 
a very moderate power of imitating animal forms. On 
the other hand, we note in the entire series of remains 
a general clumsiness of shape, and a style of ornamen- 
tation which is rude, coarse, and childish. In no re- 
mains of antiquity have we seen less elegance than 
in the thirty-two pages of ‘‘ whorls” with which Dr. 
Schliemann’s work closes. The patterning, where it is 


~—s 


THE OIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA. 15 


imitative at all, imitates animals as children do—with 
dots for heads, and lines for ears, body, tail, aud legs; 
where it is merely conventional, it is clumsy, irregular, 
and without beauty. The vases, cups, etc., are some- 
what better. Occasionaily the shapes are moderately 
good, but the great mass are either grotesque or clumsy. 
In the ornaments alone is there any approach to artistic 
excellence, and even these fail to justify the raptures 
into which they throw the discoverer. 

It is not unlikely that a civilization of the character 
revealed to us by Dr. Schliemann’s researches at Hissar- 
lik was spread widely over Asia Minor in times anterior 
to the Lydian, Phrygian, and Lycian developments, 
There are various remains of very primitive art in the 
country, which are still unclassified, and which may be- 
long to this early period. It isa marked characteristic of 
the art that it is of native growth, not the result of Baby- 
lonian, or Assyrian, or Egyptian, or Pheenician influ- 
ence. It is, in fact, Aryan art, and the civilization 
which it accompanies and indicates is Aryan civiliza- 
tion. That civilization is characterized by imagination 
and progressiveness in religion, by a tendency toward 
freedom in politics, by an elevated estimate of woman, 
by a general activity and industry, and by a high ap- 
preciation of art, a constant inventiveness, and a 
straining after ideal perfection. It was only in Euro- 
pean communities that these tendencies fully worked 
themselves out; but their germs may be seen in these 
early Asiatic efforts, when the Aryan race, in its in- 
fancy, was trying its powers, 


16 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


ON THE CIVILIZATIONS OF CENTRAL ASIA—ASSYRIA, 
MEDIA AND PERSIA, INDIA. 


While the Aryan civilizations, described in the last 
chapter, were developing themselves peacefully side by 
side, in the extreme west of the Asiatic continent, the 
region which juts out toward Europe, and is known 
by the name of Asia Minor, the more central portion 
of the Continent—the Mesopotamian Plain, the great 
Tranic Plateau, and the Peninsula of Hindostan—was 
the scene of a struggle, not always peaceful, between 
three other types of human progress and advancement, 
which in those parts contended for the mastery. Two 
of these were, like the West-Asian civilizations, Aryan, 
while one, the Assyrian, was of an entirely different 
character. It is this last to which we propose to give 
the foremost place in the present chapter, not that we 
should assign it a priority of beginning over the other 
two, but inasmuch as it reached earliest its full de- 
velopment, and so belongs, on the whole, to a more 
remote period in the world’s history. 

The Assyrian empire is regarded by some writers as 
having commenced above 2000 years B.c. Ctesias de- 
clared that a thousand years before the Trojan War a 
great chief, Ninus, had founded Nineveh, had estab- 
lished his dominion from the shores of the Mgean to 
the sources of the Upper Oxus, and had left his throne 
to his descendants, who held it through thirty genera- 
tions for above thirteen centuries. The date of Ctcsias 
for the Trojan War was probably about B.c. 1200-1190; 
so that he must have meant to place the commencement 
of the Assyrian power about B.c. 2200. This view was 
long followed by writers on ancient history, by whom 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA. 17 


the authovity of Ctesias, who passed seventeen years at 
the Court of Susa and had access to the Persian ar- 
chives, was regarded as paramount. ‘There have been, 
however, at all times historians to whom the Assyrian 
chronology of Ctesias has seemed extravagant and un- 
real, who have thought little of his authority, and have 
lowered his date for the establishment of the Assyrian 
empire by nine hundred or a thousand years. State- 
ments in Herodotus and in Berosus could be adduced 
in favor of the more moderate computation; and it ac- 
corded better than that of Ctesias with the scattered 
notices contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus, the 
shorter chronology has at all times held its ground 
against the longer one; and having approved itself to 
such writers as Volney, Heeren, B. G. Niebuhr, and 
Brandis, has in the present century been the view most 
generally accepted by historical critics. 

The question, however, might have remained an open 
one for all time, either side of it being arguable, and 
the balance of probability appearing to different minds 
to incline differently, had not the discovery and de- 
cipherment of the cuneiform records come in to deter- 
mine it. By their aid the connected histories of As- 
syria and Babylonia can now be traced back continu- 
ously, and with a chronology that, if not exact, is at 
least approximate, to the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
tury B.c. It is now made clear that, so far from there 
having been at this date a vast Assyrian empire, which 
for seven hundred and fifty years had ruled over all 
Asia, from the Mediterranean and Agean to the banks 
of the Oxus and the Indus, Assyria was really, in B.c. 
1500 - 1400, a weak state, confined within narrow 
boundaries, and only just emerging from Babylonian 
tutelage, its earlier rulers having been called pates?, or 


18 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


‘viceroys,” and its monarchs at this period having only 
just begun to assume the grander and more dignified 
title of ‘‘kings of countries.” The Assyrian empire 
does not commence til] a century and a half later, B.c. 
1800, when Tiglathi-Nin (perhaps the Ninus of the 
Greeks) took Babylon, and established the predomi- 
nance of Assyria over Lower as well as Upper Mesopo- 
tamia. We cannot date much earlier than this the 
commencement of that peculiar form of Semitic civili- 
zation which is associated with the idea of Assyria, 
partly from the accounts of ancient writers, but mainly 
from the recovered treasures of art and literature which 
line the walls and load the shelves of our museums. 
The civilization of the Assyrians was material rather 
than spiritual. Its main triumphs were in architec- 
ture, in glyptic and plastic art, in metallurgy, gem- 
cutting, and manufactures, not in philosophy, or lit- 
erature, or science, properly so called. According to 
some, its architecture went to the extent of producing 
edifices of a magnificence scarcely exceeded by the 
grandest buildings of any age or country—edifices four 
or five stories in height, of varied outline, richly 
adorned from base to summit, and commandingly 
placed on lofty platforms of a solid and massive char- 
acter. The restorations of Mr. Fergusson, adopted by 
Mr. Layard, present to the eye Assyrian facades whose 
grandeur is undeniable, while, if the style and luxu- 
riance of their ornamentation are somewhat barbaric, 
yet the entire effect is beyond question splendid, strik- 
ing, admirable. If these representations are truthful, 
if they really reproduce the ancient edifices, or even 
convey a correct impression of their general character, 
we must pronounce the Assyrian architecture to have 
attained results which the best architects of the present 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA, 19 


day could not easily outdo. Even if we hesitate to 
accept as ascertained fact conclusions which are in 
reality the ingenious conjectures of a fertile imagina- 
tion, we must still allow that the actual remains suffi- 
ciently indicate a grandeur of conception and plan, an 
appreciation of the fine effect of massiveness, and a 
variety and richness in ornament, which go far to show 
that the Assyrians were really great as builders, though 
it may be impossible, with such data as we possess, to 
Testore or reconstruct their edifices, 

If the remains of Assyrian architecture are such as to 
preclude an evact estimate of the merit to which the 
Assyrians are entitled as builders, with respect to their 
glyptic art it is quite otherwise. Here the remains are 
ample, and, indeed, superabundant. The museums of 
London, Paris, and Berlin contain the spoils of the 
great Mesopotamian cities in such profusion that no 
one acquainted with them can lack the means of form- 
ing a decided opinion upon the artistic power of the 
people. Even such as are without the leisure or the 
opportunity of visiting these rich depositories and seeing 
the sculptures for themselves may form a very tolerable 
judgment of them from the excellent works which have 
been published on the subject, as especially those of 
Mr. Layard and M. Botta. The author of the present 
work has also done his best to assist the public in form- 
ing correct views by placing before them the main 
features of Assyrian art in a condensed form in his 
‘‘Monarchy of Assyria.” Mr. Vaux, in his ‘‘ Nineveh 
and Persepolis,” and various writers in the ‘‘ Dictionary 
of the Bible” and the ‘‘ Bible Educator,” have worked 
in the same direction; and the result is a very wide ac- 
quaintance with the products of Assyrian artists, if not 
a very exact critical appreciation of their merits, 


20 THE HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


It may perhaps be allowed to the present writer tu 
insert here, instead of a new criticism, the estimate 
which he formed of Assyrian glyptic art fifteen years 
ago, when fresh from a five years’ study of the subject. 
‘In the Assyrian sculpture it is the actual,” he said, 
“the historically true, which the artist strives to repre- 
sent. Unless in the case of a few mythic figures con- 
nected with the religion of the country, there is noth- 
ing in the Assyrian bas-reliefs which is not imitated 
from nature. The imitation is always laborious, and 
often most accurate and exact. The laws of represen- 
tation, as we understand them, are sometimes departed 
from; but it is always to impress the spectator with 
ideas in accordance with truth. Thus the colossal buils 
and lions have five legs, but in order that they may be 
seen from every point of view with four; the ladders 
are placed edgeways against the walls of besieged towns, 
but it is to show that they are ladders, and not mere 
poles; walls of cities are made disproportionately small, 
but it is done, like Raphael’s boat, to bring them within 
the picture, which would otherwise be a less complete 
representation of the actual fact. The careful finish, 
the minute detail, the elaboration of every hair in a 
beard, and every stitch in the embroidery of a dress, 
reminds us of the Dutch school of painting, and illus- 
trates strongly the spirit of faithfulness and honesty 
which pervades the sculptures and gives them so great 
a portion of their value. In conception, in grace, in 
freedom and correctness of outline, they fall undoubt- 
edly far behind the inimitable productions of the 
Greeks; but they have a grandeur, a dignity, a boldness, 
a strength and an appearance of life which render 
them even intrinsically valuable as works of art; and 
considering the time at which they were produced, 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 21 


must excite our surprise and admiration. Art, so far 
as we know, had existed previously only in the stiff 
and lifeless conventionalism of the Egyptians. It be- 
longed to Assyria to confine the conventional to relig- 
ion, and to apply art to the vivid representations of the 
highest scenes of human life. War in all its forms— 
the march, the battle, the pursuit, the siege of towns, 
the passage of rivers and marshes, the submission and 
treatment of captives—and the ‘‘mimic war” of hunt- 
ing, the chase of the lion, the stag, the antelope, the 
wild bull, and the wild ass—are the chief subjects 
treated by the Assyrian sculptors; and in these the con- 
ventional is discarded; freshscenes, new groupings, bold 
and strange attitudes perpetually appear; and in the 
animal representations especially there is a continual 
advance, the latest being the most spirited, the most 
varied, and the most true to nature, though perhaps 
lacking somewhat of the majesty and grandeur of the 
earlier. With no attempt to idealize or go beyond na- 
ture, there is a growing power of depicting things as 
they are—an increased grace and delicacy of execution, 
showing that Assyrian art was progressive, not sta- 
tionary, and giving a promise of still higher excellence, 
had circumstances permitted its development.” 

To their merit as sculptors and architects, the Assyr- 
ians added an excellent taste in the modelling of vases, 
jars, and drinking-cups, a clever and refined metallurgy, 
involving methods which, till revealed by their remains, 
were unknown to the moderns, a delicacy in the carv- 
ing of ivory and mother-of-pearl, a skill in gem-engrav- 
ing, glass-blowivg and coloring, brick-enamelling, fur- 
niture-making, and robe-embroidering, which place 
them beyond question among the most advanced and 
elegant of Oriental peoples, and show that, from a 


22 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


material point of view, their civilization did not fall 
very greatly behind that of the Greeks. Combined 
with this progress in luxury and refinement, and this 
high perfection of the principal arts that embellish and 
beautify life, their sculptures and their records reveal 
much which revolts and disgusts—savage punishments, 
brutalizing war customs, a debasing religion, a crucl 
treatment of prisoners, a contempt for women, a puerile 
and degrading superstitiousness—teaching the lesson, 
which the present age would do well to lay seriously to 
heart, that material progress, skill in manufactures and 
in arts, even refined taste and real artistic excellence, 
are no sure indications of that civilization which is 
alone of real value, the civilization of the heart, a con- 
dition involving not merely polished manners, but gen- 
tleness, tenderness, self-restraint, purity, elevation of 
mind and soul, devotion of the thoughts and life to 
better things than comfort or luxury, or the cultivation 
of the esthetic faculties. 

Tranic civilization, or that of the Medes, the Persians, 
and (perhaps we should add) the Bactrians, is supposed 
by some moderns to have originated as early as B.c. 
3784. Others assigned to it the comparatively moderate 
date of B.c. 2600-2500. The writer, however, who is most 
conversant with the early Iranic writings, and most com- 
petent to judge of their real age, Dr. Martin Haug, does 
not think it necessary to postulate for his favorites, the 
Tranians, nearly so great an antiquity. Haug suggests 
the fifteenth century B.c. as that of the most primi- 
tiver Ianic compositions, which form the chief if not 
the sole evidence of an Iranic cultivation prior to B.C. 
700. 

The question is one rather of linguistic criticism than 
of historic testimony. The historic statements that have 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA, 28 


come down to us on the subject of the age of Zoroaster, 
with whose name the origin of Iranic cultivation is by 
general consent regarded as intimately connected, are 
so absolutely conflicting that they must be pronounced 
valueless. Eudoxus and Aristotle said that Zoroaster 
lived 6000 years before the death of Plato, or B.c. 6348. 
Hermippus placed him 5000 years before the Trojan 
War, or B.c. 6184. Berosus declared of him that he 
reigned at Babylon toward the beginning of the twenty- 
third century before our era, having ascended the throne, 
according to his chronological views, about B.c. 2286. 
Xanthus Lydus, the contemporary of Herodotus, and 
the first Greek writer who treats of the subject, made 
him live six hundred years only before the invasion of 
Greece by Xerxes, or B.c. 1080. The later Greeks and 
Romans declared that he was contemporary with Darius 
Hystaspis, thus making his date about B.c. 520-485. 
Between the earliest and the latest of the dates assigned 
by these authorities, the difference (it will be seen) is 
one of nearly siz thousand years ! 

Modern criticism doubts whether Zoroaster ever lived 
at all, and regards his name as designating a period 
rather than a person. The period intended is that of 
the composition of the earliest portions of the Zend- 
avesta. To these portions, which are poems, and in the 
original bear the name of Gathas, Haug (as we have al- 
ready stated) assigns as the most probable date about 
B.c, 1500. We see no reason for doubting the sound- 
ness of this expert’s judgment, and we incline, there- 
fore, to regard Iranic civilization as having commenced 
somewhat earlier than Assyrian. 

Of this primitive civilization, whereof the seat seems 
to have been Bactria, rather than Media or Persia, we 
possess no actual remains, no tangible or material evi- 


24. THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


dences. The only existing proofs of it are the Zendic 
writings; and the only notion of it which we can gain 
is that derivable from a careful study of these writings, 
or rather of their most ancient portions. From these 
we gather that the primitive Iranians were a settled peo- 
ple, possessing cities of some size, that they were de- 
voted to agriculture, and fairly advanced in the arts 
most necessary for human life. They had domesticated 
certain animals, as the horse, the cow, and the dog. 
They knew how to extract an exhilarating liquor from 
the Soma or Homa plant, the acid Asclepias or Sarcos- 
tema viminalis. They lived peaceably together, and rec- 
ognized the supremacy of law. They had formed the 
conception of poetry, and while some could frame, the 
generality could appreciate the beauty of metrical com- 
positions. Above all, they had a religion, which was 
surprisingly pure and elevated, consisting mainly in the 
worship of a single supreme God, an all-wise, all-boun- 
teous Spirit, Ahuramazda, 

The cultivation thus begun about B.c. 1500 in the 
far-off and little-known Bactria, received a fresh im- 
pulse toward the middle of the ninth century B.c., when 
the Iranians first came into contact with the Assyrians. 
Migratory movements had by this time brought the 
Medes into the district which thenceforth bore their 
name, and having thus become neighbors of the As- 
syrians, whose civilization was already advanced, they 
could not but gain something from their novel expe- 
rience. Among the chief gains made was probably that 
of writing. The wedge was adopted as the element out 
of which letters should be composed, and an alphabet 
was formed far less cumbrous than the Assyrian syl- 
labarium, whereby it became easy to express articulate _ 
sounds by written symbols, and so to give permanency 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA. 25 


to the transient and fleeting phenomena of ordinary 
spoken language. 

Further advances were made between the end of the 
seventh and the middle of the fifth century B.c., about 
which time Iranian cultivation reached its greatest de- 
velopment. The Medes first (B.c. 680) and the Persians 
afterward (B.c. 560) attained to the leading position 
among the Oriental nations, and, inheriting the power, 
entered also into possession of the accumulated knowl- 
edge and civilization of the earlier masters of Asia. 
They did not, however, simply continue the past, or 
reproduce what they found existing. In the remains 
of Median and Persian times found at Hamadan (Ecba- 
tana), Behistun, Istakr (Persepolis), Nakhsh-i-Rustam, 
and Murghab (Pasargade), we have evidences of Iranian 
art and architecture, which are most remarkable, and 
which give the Medo-Persic people a very important 
position in the history of esthetic culture. While adopt- 
ing one or two leading features of building and orna- 
mentation from their Semitic predecessors, the Iranic 
races in the main gave a vent to their own native genius 
and fancy, and the consequence was that they intro- 
duced into the world a wholly new architecture, a style 
of high relief not previously attempted, and a method 
of decoration altogether their own, excellently well 
adapted to the character of their climate and country. 

The Iranic architecture was characterized, in the first 
place, by simplicity and regularity of design, and in the 
second by the profuse employment of the column. The 
buildings have for the most part a symmetry and exact- 
ness resembling that of Greek temples, They were em- 
placed on terraces formed of vast blocks of hewn stone, 
and were approached by staircases of striking and un- 
usual design. Double porticos of eight, twelve, or six- 


26 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


teen columns gave entrance into pillared halls, where 
the columns were sixteen, thirty-six, or (in one instance) 
fs many as one hundred in number. Originally the pil- 
lars may have been mere wooden posts, such as are com- 
monly used in the domestic architecture of most nations 
where wood is plentiful. ‘These, when wealth flowed 
in, it became the practice to overspread with thin sheets 
of the precious metals. But after a while the Iranic 
architects, having to erect palaces in districts where 
wood was scarce, conceived the idea of substituting 
shafts of stone for the original wooden posts, and car- 
ried out their notion so successfully that at last they 
were able to poise in air pillars sixty-four feet high, 
having beautifully slender shafts, rich bases, and capi- 
tals of an elegant but perhaps somewhat too elaborate 
composition. The halls constructed on these supports 
extended over so vast an area that moderns have found 
no existing constructions with which they could com- 
pare them but the most ambitious of European cathe- 
drals. Speaking of the Chehl Minar, or Great Hall of 
Xerxes, at Persepolis, Mr. Fergusson says: ‘‘ We have 
no cathedral in England that at all comes near it in 
dimensions; nor, indeed, in France or Germany is there 
one that covers so much ground. Cologne comes nearest 
to it; . . . but in linear horizontal dimensions the only 
edifice of the middle ages that comes up to it is Milan 
Cathedral, which covers 107,800 feet, and (taken all in 
ali) is perhaps the building that resembles it most, both 
in style and the general character of the effect it must 
have produced on the spectator.” 

For the ornamentation of their buildings, externally, 
and to some extent internally, the Iranians, imitating 
their Semitic predecessors, employed sculpture. They 
did not, however, follow slavishly the pattern set them, 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA. 27 


but in important respects improved upon their models. 
They adopted generally a style of much higher relief 
than that which had prevailed in Assyrian times, some- 
times almost disengaging their figures from the back- 
ground, sometimes carving them both in front and at 
the side, so that they did not fall far short of being 
statues. They gave to their human heads great dignity, 
and imparted to some animal forms a life and vigor 
never greatly surpassed. In variety and grace, however, 
they cannot be said to have equalled the Assyrians; and 
it is in their architecture rather than in their glyptic 
art, that they give evidence of real originality and 
genius. 

Their internal decoration of palaces was especially 
admirable. ‘‘ Such edifices as the Chehl Minar at Per- 
sepolis, and its duplicate at Susa—where long vistas of 
columns met the eye on every side, and the great central 
cluster was supported by lighter detached groups, com- 
bining similarity of form with some variety of orna- 
ment; where richly colored drapings contrasted with 
the cool gray stone of the building, and a golden roof 
overhung a pavement of many hues;” where a throne 
of gold under a canopy of purple stood on an elevated 
platform at one end, backed by ‘‘ hangings of white and 
green and blue, fastened with cords of white and purple 
to silver rings,” attached to the ‘‘pillars of marble;” 
where carpets of dazzling brightness lay here and there 
upon the patterned floor, and through the interstices of 
the hangings were seen the bright blue sky and the 
verdant prairies and distant mountains of Khuzistan 
or Farsistan—must have been among the fairest crea- 
tions with which human art ever embellished the earth, 
and beyond a doubt compared favorably with any edi- 
fices which, up to the time of their construction, had 


28 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


been erected in any country or by any people. It was 
in these glorious buildings that Iranian architecture 
culminated; and there is reason to believe that from 
them the Grecian architects gained those ideas, which, 
fructifying in their artistic minds, led on to the best 
triumphs of Hellenic constructive art, the magnificent 
temples of Diana (Artemis) at Ephesus, and of Minerva 
(Athené) on the Acropolis of Athens. 

Of Iranian literary cultivation not much is known. 
There are no portions of the Zendavesta which can be 
positively assigned to the space between B.c. 900 and 
B.C. 880. The inscriptions of this period are dry docu- 
ments, and as compositions have little merit; but lapi- 
dary literature is rarely of an attractive kind. We are 
told that the Persians of the Achemenian times (B.C. 
5603-30) had among them historians and poets; but the 
productions of these early authors have perished, and 
we have no account of them that is to be depended on. 
Perhaps it is, on the whole, most probable that in the 
great work of Firdausi we have, in the main, a repro- 
duction of the legends with which the antique poets oc- 
cupied themselves, and so may gather from his pages a 
general idea of the style and spirit of the early Persian 
poetry. 

In manners and general habits of life the Iranians 
did not differ greatly from the Assyrians. Their orig- 
inal religion was indeed of a high type, but it became 
corrupted as time went on, and ultimately sank into a 
mere debasing and sensualistic nature-worship. Their 
war customs were less brutal than those of their prede- 
cessors, but their system of punishment was almost 
equally savage; they had the same low estimate of 
women; they were cruel and treacherous, voluptuous, 
luxurious, given to drunkenness. Western Asia was 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA. 29 


perhaps better governed under their sway than it had 
ever been previously; but there was still much in their 
governmental system that was imperfect, and that fell 
short even of what is possible under a despotism. Their 
civilization may be pronounced to have been, on the 
whole, more advanced than that of the Assyrians; it 
had a moral aspect; it was less merely material; but 
the highest qualities of real civilization were absent 
from it, and it cannot be said to have laid the world at 
large under many obligations. 

Indic civilization is supposed to have commenced 
about the same time with Iranic. There are so many 
points of resemblance between the ancient hymns of the 
Rig-Veda and the Githas, allowed to form the most 
ancient portions of the Avesta, that it is almost impossi- 
ble for persons familiar with both to assign them to 
periods very far apart. The ancestors of the Medes and 
Persians on the one hand, and of the Hindoos upon the 
other, appear to have left their primitive abode about 
the same time, and to have embodied their earliest 
religious thoughts soon after they separated in poems of 
the same character. Thus, there is a general agreement 
among literary critics as to the near connection in date 
of the two literatures. With regard, however_to the 
actual period, great diversity of opinion prevails, the 
same variety of views obtaining in respect of the 
earliest Vedas as we have already shown to exist with 
respect to the Giithas of the Zendavesta. But here 
again the chief ‘‘ expert”—the writer who has the largest 
acquaintance with the whole range of the Indian com- 
positions, and with the general history of language—has 
expressed himself, in moderate terms, as favorable to a 
date which is, comparatively speaking, late. Professor 
Max Miller, in his ‘‘ Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” lays 


7 


30 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


it down that there are four periods of Vedic composi- 
tion—the Chandas period, Mantra period, Brahmana 
period, and Sutra period; and after an elaborate and ex- 
haustive discussion, of which it is impossible not to 
admire the candor and the learning, comes to the con- 
clusion that the approximate date of each may be laid 
down as follows: 


Ghandas period acme S20 beales caetle see keeecee sede 1200 to 1000 B.c. 
Mantra period jis) .avhsisk ne bs lejuiae uahela alates Mae oe 1000 to 800 B.c. 
Brahman Period hic Sak nats sees Shambles me 800 to 600 B.c. 
ESET IOTION 4 cus en cies cae ses saat pene ae 600 to 200 B.c- 


Thus according to the highest living authority, the com. 
mencement of Vedic literature, and so of Indian civiliza- 
tion, need not be placed farther back than the beginning 
of the twelfth century B.c. 

The civilization which the writings of the Chandas 
period reveal is one of great simplicity. Cities seem not 
to be mentioned; there is no organized political life; no 
war worthy of the name; nothing but plundering expe- 
ditions. - Tribes exist under their heads, who are at 
once kings, priests, judges, and poets, and to whom the 
rest render obedience. Religion is a worship by hymns, 
and with simple offerings, as of honey, but scarcely yet 
with regular sacrifice. There is a power of metaphysi- 
cal speculation which may perhaps surprise us, but 
which seems congenital to the Oriental mind; and there 
is evidence of progress in some of the mechanical arts 
beyond what might have been expected. Ships are 
familiar objects to the writers of the poems; chariots are 
in common use; the horse and cow are domesticated, 
and are sheltered in stables; armor is worn, and is 
sometimes of gold; shields are carried in battle; an in- 
toxicating drink is brewed; dice have been invented, 
and gambling is not uncommon. 


THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASTA. 31 


As time goes on, this extreme simplicity disappears. 
There are advances of various kinds. Cities are built 
and magnificent palaces constructed; trades become 
numerous; luxury creepsin. The priests, having come 
to be a separate class, introduce an elaborate ceremonial. 
Music is cultivated; writing is invented or learned. But, 
after all, the material progress made is not very great. 
Indian civilization is, in the main, intellectual, not 
material. Careless of life and action, of history, politics, 
artistic excellence, trade, commerce, manufacture, the 
Indians concentrate their attention on the highest 
branches of metaphysics, ponder on themselves and 
their future, on the nature of the Divine essence, on 
their own relation to it, and the prospects involved in 
that relationship. They discuss and they solve the 
most difficult questions of metaphysical science; they 
elaborate grammar, the science of language, which is 
the reflected image of thought; they altogether occupy 
themselves with the inward, not with the outward—with 
the eternal world of mind and rest, not with the transi- 
tory and illusory world of outward seeming and inces- 
sant changefulness. Hence the triumphs of their civil- 
ization are abstract and difficult to appreciate. They lie 
outside the ordinary interests of mankind, and are, 
moreover, shrouded in a language known to few, and 
from which there are but few translations. It is said, 
however, by those whose acquaintance with the early 
Iadian literature is the widest, that there is scarcely a 
problem in the science of ontology, psychology, meta- 
physics, logic, or grammar, which the Indian sages have 
not sounded as deeply, and discussed as elaborately, as 
the Greeks. 


eyes OAL Fat? Sh) 


| tig’ (SFU) 

ie adl Wie lek a bb gist Dy wilsel. Rie 
wes ee aie ee Na Fe iolvetdat ° 
etpaeiicy Cant pect aa Rita %e 


bie Thee Pry 7 n 


we 


‘ aly Bae epee Y fevicy sooner: 4 rc seed 
Peover Ee <q eel y Gia isda: ean, 


. air Sai ar eee (ela i 
, at Lite Oe fisaeey hte! = 
jie ae = on 

ina? fallacy DIE FSR rk Pattee : 
jefataia tony arg 0303 velar Salil © 
stab orgie os Hons. hae tatede ee ees 
EAE Si SRT! ain hit ab id vatioS 
rach fae acta ay zy thi is hawradieihs sWRY') 
Sere agi WORSE ve yet say A fe oe 


4 £ S bod - 
afore fet bias ere 


soe st BRO ROP VE” ea 


4 > A 
Dotly 9 |= ae 


e aR Sp) oe i fd ve 


ee 


7a a ; By wh (oad 
Sores PROF E ‘ 4 i tide oto, 


mS Wat a aint 


, P ’ ; ~—“- ‘ area oy? os 
ahiel nba hag -, ; 


> PERL ial r ‘Bites 


THE DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE OF 
EVOLUTION. 


Tue occurrence of historical facts is said to be dem- 
onstrated, when the evidence that they happened is of 
such a character as to render the assumption that they 
did not happen in the highest degree improbable; and 
the question I now have to deal with is, whether evi- 
dence in favor of the evolution of animals of this degree 
of cogency is, or is not, obtainable from the record of 
the succession of living forms which is presented to us 
by fossil remains. | 

Those who have attended to the progress of paleeon- 
tology are aware that evidence of the character which I 
have defined has heen produced in considerable and 
continually increasing quantity during the last few 
years. Indeed, the amount and the satisfactory nature 
of that evidence are somewhat surprising, when we con- 
sider the conditions under which alone we can hope to 
obtain it. 

It is obviously useless to seek for such evidence, ex- 
cept in localities in which the physical conditions have 
been such as to permit of the deposit of an unbroken, 
or but rarely interrupted, series of strata through a long 
period of time; in which the group of animals to be in- 
vestigated has existed in such abundance as to furnish 
the requisite supply of remains; and in which, finally, 


\ 
a 


4 THH ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


the materials composing the strata are such as to ensure 
the preservation of these remains in a tolerably perfect 
and undisturbed state. 

It so happens that the case which, at present, most 
nearly fulfils all these conditions is that of the series of 
extinct animals which culminates in the Horses; by 
which term I mean to denote not merely the domestic 
animals with which we are all so well acquainted, but 
their allies, the ass, zebra, quagga, and the like. In 
short, I use ‘‘ horses” as the equivalent of the technical 
name Hguide, which is applied to the whole group of 
existing equine animals. 

The horse is in many ways a remarkable animal; not 
least so in the fact that it presents us with an example 
of one of the most perfect pieces of machinery in the 
living world. In truth, among the works of human in- 
genuity it cannot be said that there is any locomotive 
so perfectly adapted to its purposes, doing so much work 
with so small a quantity of fuel, as this machine of 
nature’s manufacture—the horse. And, as a necessary 
consequence of any sort of perfection, of mechanical 
perfection as of others, you find that the horse is a 
beautiful creature, one of the most beautiful of all land- 
animals. Look at the perfect balance of his form, and 
the rhythm and force of its action. The locomotive 
machinery is,.as you are aware, resident in its slender 
fore and hind limbs; they are flexible and elastic levers, 
capable of being moved by very powerful muscles; and, 
in order to supply the’ engines which work these levers 
with the force which they expend, the horse is provided 
with a very perfect apparatus for grinding its food and 
extracting therefrom the requisite fuel. 

Without attempting to take you very far into the 
region of osteological detail, I must nevertheless trouble 


EVIDENCE OF HVOLUTION. 5 


you with some statements respecting the anatomical 
structure of the horse; and, more especially, will it be 
needful to obtain a general conception of the structure 
of its fore and hind limbs, and of its teeth. But I shall 
only touch upon those points which are absolutely es. 
sential to our inquiry. 

Let us turn in the first place to the fore-limb. In 
most quadrupeds, as in ourselves, the fore-arm contains 
distinct bones called the radius and the ulna, The cor- 
responding region in the horse seems at first to possess 
but one bone. Careful observation, however, enables us 
to distinguish in this bone a part which clearly answers 
to the upper end of the ulna, This is closely united with 
the ehief mass of the bone which represents the radius, 
and runs out into a slender shaft which may be traced 
for some distance downwards upon the back of the 
radius, and then in most cases thins out and vanishes. 
It takes still more trouble to make sure of what is never- 
theless the fact, that a small part of the lower end of 
the bone of a horse’s fore-arm, which is only distinct in 
a very young foal, is really the lower extremity of the 
ulna. 

What is commonly called the knee of a horse is its 
wrist. ‘The ‘‘ cannon bone” answers to the middle bone 
of the five metacarpal bones, which support the palm of 
the hand in ourselves. The ‘‘ pastern,” ‘‘ coronary,” and 
coffin” bones of veterinarians answer to the joints of 
our middle fingers, while the hoof is simply a greatly 
enlarged and thickened nail. But if what lies below 
the horse’s ‘‘ knee” thus corresponds to the middle finger 
in ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers 
or digits? We find in the places of the second and 
fourth digits only two slender splint-like bones, about 
two thirds as long as the cannon bone, which gradually 


6 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY, 


taper to the lower ends and bear no finger joints, or, as 
they are termed, phalanges. Sometimes, small bony or 
gristly nodules are to be found at the bases of these two 
metacarpal splints, and it is probable that these represent 
rudiments of the first and fifth toes. Thus, the part of 
the horse’s skeleton which corresponds with that of the 
human hand, contains one overgrown middle digit, and 
at least two imperfect lateral: digits; and these answer, 
respectively, to the third, otk second, and the fourth 
fingers in man. 

Corresponding modifications are found in the hind 
limb. In ourselves, and in most quadrupeds, the leg 
contains two distinct bones—a large bone, the tibia, and 
a smaller and more slender bone, the fibular. But, in 
the horse, the fibular seems, at first, to be reduced to its 
upper end; a short slender bone united with the tibia, 
and ending in a point below, occupying its place. Ex- 
amination of the lower end of a young foal’s shin-bone, 
however, shows a distinct portion of osseous matter 
which is the lower end of the fibula; so that the appar- 
ently single lower end of the shin-bone is really made 
up of the coalesced ends of the tibia and fibula, just as 
the apparently single lower end of the fore-arm bone 
is composed of the coalesced radius and ulna. 

The heel of the horse is the part commonly known ag 
the hock. The hinder cannon bone answers to the mid- 
dle metatarsal bone of the human foot; the pastern, cor- 
onary, and coftin bones, to the middle toe bones; the 
hind hoof to the nail; as in the fore-foot. And, as in 
the fore-foot, there are merely two splints to represent 
the second and the fourth toes. Sometimes arudiment 
of a fifth toe appears to be traceable. 

The teeth of a horse are not less peculiar than its 
limbs. The living engine, like all others, must be well 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 7 


stoked if it is to do its work; and the horse, if it is to 
make good its wear and tear, and to exert the enormous 
amount of force required for its propulsion, must be 
well and rapidly fed. To this end, good cutting instru- 
ments and powerful and lasting crushers are needful. 
Accordingly, the twelve cutting teeth of a horse are 
close-set and concentrated in the fore part of its mouth, 
like so many adzes or chisels. The grinders or molars 
are large, and have an extremely complicated structure, 
being composed of a number of different substances of 
unequal hardness. The consequence of thisis that they 
wear away at different rates; and, hence, the surface of 
each grinder is always as uneven as that of a good mill- 
stone. 

I have said that the structure of the grinding teeth is 
very complicated, the harder and the softer parts being, 
as it Were, interlaced with one another. The result of 
this is that, as the tooth wears, the crown presents a 
peculiar pattern, the nature of which is not very easily 
deciphered at first, but which it is important that we 
should understand clearly. Each grinding tooth of the 
upper jaw has an outer wall so shaped that, on the worn 
crown, it exhibits the form of two crescents, one in 
front and one behind, with their concave sides turned 
outwards. From the inner sides of the front crescent, 
a cresentic front ridge passes inwards and backwards, 
and its inner face enlarges into a strong longitudinal 
fold or pillar. From the front part of the hinder cres- 
cent, a back ridge takes a like direction, and also has its 
pillar, 

The deep interspaces or valleys between these ridges 
and the outer wall are filled by bony substance, which 
.is called cement, and coats the whole tooth. 

The pattern of the worn face of each grinding tooth 


8 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


of the lower jaw is quite different. It appears to be 
formed of two crescent-shaped ridges, the convexities of 
which are turned outwards. The free extremity of each 
crescent has a pillar, and there is a large double pillar 
where the two crescents meet. The whole structure is, 
as it were, imbedded in cement, which fills up the val- 
leys, as in the upper grinders, 

If the grinding faces of an upper and of a lower mo- 
lar of the same side are applied together, it will be seen 
that the opposed ridges are nowhere parallel, but that 
they frequently cross; and that thus, in the act of mas- 
tication, a hard surface in the one is constantly applied 
to a soft surface in the other, and vice versa. They thus 
constitute a grinding apparatus of great efficiency, and 
one which is repaired as fast as it wears, owing to the 
long continued growth of the teeth. 

Some other peculiarities of the dentition of the horse 
must be noticed, as they bear upon what I shall have 
to say by and by. Thus the crowns of the cutting teeth 
have a peculiar deep pit, which gives rise to the well- 
known ‘‘mark” of the horse. There is a large space 
between the outer incisors and the front grinder. In 
this space the adult male horse presents, near the in- 
cisors, one on each side, above and below, a canine or 
‘‘tush,” which is commonly absent in mares. In a 
young horse, moreover, there is not unfrequently to be 
seen, in front of the first grinder, a very small tooth, 
which soon falls out. If this small tooth be counted as 
one, it will be found that there are seven teeth behind 
the canine on each side; namely, the small tooth in 
question, and the six great grinders, among which, by 
an unusual peculiarity, the foremost tooth is rather 
larger than those which follow it. 

I have now enumerated those characteristic structures 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 9 


of the horse which are of most importance for the pur- 
pose we have in view. 

To any one who is acquainted with the morphology of 
vertebrated animals, they show that the horse deviates 
widely from the general structure of mammals; and 
that the horse type is, in many respects, an extreme 
modification of the general mammalian plan. The least 
modified mammals, in fact, have the radius and ulna, 
the tibia and fibula, distinct and separate. They have 
five distinct and complete digits on each foot, and no 
one of these digits is very much larger than the rest. 
Moreover, in the least modified mammals, the total 
number of the teeth is very generally forty-four, while 
in horses the usual number is forty, and in the absence 
of the canines it may be reduced to thirty-six; the in- 
cisor teeth are devoid of the fold seen in those of the 
horse; the grinders regularly diminish in size from the 
middle of the series to its front end; while their crowns 
are short, early attain their full length, and exhibit sim- 
ple ridges or tubercles, in place of the complex foldings 
of the horse’s grinders. 

Hence the general principles of the hypothesis of ev- 
olution lead to the conclusion that the horse must have 
been derived from some quadruped which possessed 
five complete digits on each foot; which had the bones 
of the fore-arm and of the leg complete and separate; 
and which possessed forty-four teeth, among which the 
crowns of the incisors and grinders had a simple struc- 
ture; while the latter gradually increased in size from 
before backwards, at any rate in the anterior part of the 
series, and had short crowns. 

And if the horse has been thus evolved, and the re- 
mains of the different stages of its evolution have been 
preserved, they ought to present us with a series of 


10 THH ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


forms in which the number of the digits becomes re- 
duced; the bones of the fore-arm and leg gradually take 
on the equine condition; and the form and arrangement 
of the teeth successively approximate to those which 
obtain in existing horses. 

Let us turn to the facts and see how far they fulfil 
these requirements of the doctrine of evolution. 

In Europe abundant remains of horses are found in 
the Quaternary and later Tertiary strata as far as the 
Pliocene formation. But these horses, which are so 
common in the cave deposits and in the gravels of Eu- 
rope, are in all essential respects like existing horses. 
And that is true of all the horses of the latter part of the 
Pliocene epoch. But, in deposits which belong to the 
earlier Pliocene and later Miocene epochs, and which 
occur in Britain, in France, in Germany, in Greece, in 
India, we find animals which are extremely like horses 
—which, in fact, are so similar to horses, that you may 
follow descriptions given in works upon the anatomy 
of the horse upon the skeletons of these animals—but 
which differ in some important particulars. For exam. 
ple, the structure of their fore and hind limbs is some- 
what different. The bones which, in the horse, are 
represented by two splints, imperfect below, are as long 
as the metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and, attached 
to the extremity of each, isa digit with three joints of 
the same general character as those of the middle digit, 
only very much smaller. These small digits are so dis- 
posed that they could have had but very little functional 
importance, and they must have been rather of the na- 
ture of the dew-claws, such as are to be found in many 
ruminant animals. The Hipparion, as the extinct Eu 
ropean three-toed horse is called, in fact, presents a foot 
similar to that of the American Protohippus (Fig. 9), ex- 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 11 


cept that, in the Hipparion, the smaller digits are situ- 
ated farther back, and are of smaller proportional size, 
than in the Protohippus. 

The ulna is slightly more distinct than in the horse; 
and the whole length of it, as a very slender shaft, inti- 
mately united with the radius, is completely traceable. 
The fibula appears to be in the same condition as in the 
horse. The teeth of the Hipparion are essentially simi- 
lar to those of the horse, but the pattern of the grinders 
is in some respects a little more complex, and there is a 
depression on the face of the skull in front of the orbit, 
which is not seen in existing horses, 

In the earlier Miocene and perhaps the later Eocene 
deposits of some parts of Europe, another extinct ani- 
mal has been discovered, which Cuvier, who first de- 
scribed some fragments of it, considered to be a Palao- 
thertum. But as further discoveries threw no light 
upon its structure, it was recognized asa distinct genus, 
under the name of Anchitheriwm. | 

In its general characters, the skeleton of Anchitherium 
is very similar to that of the horse. In fact, Lartet and 
De Blainville called it Pleotheriwm equinum or hippoides; 
and De Christol, in 1847, said that it differed from Hip- 
parion in little more than the characters of its teeth, and 
gave it the name of Mipparitherium. TEach foot pos- 
sesses three complete toes; while the lateral toes are 
much larger in proportion to the middle toe than in 
Hipparion, and doubtless rested on the ground in ordi- 
nary locomotion. 

The ulna is complete and quite distinct from the 
radius, though firmly united with the latter. The 
fibula seems also to have been complete. Its lower end, 
though intimately united with that of the tibia, is clearly 
marked off from the latter bone. 


12 THE HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


There are forty-four teeth. The incisors have no 
strong pit. The canines seem to have been well devel- 
oped in both sexes. The first of the seven grinders, 
which, as I have said, is frequently absent, and, when 
it does exist, is small in the horse, is a good-sized and 
permanent tooth, while the grinder which follows it is 
but little larger than the hinder ones. The crowns of 
the grinders are short, and though the fundamental 
pattern of the horse-tooth is discernible, the front and 
back ridges are less curved, the accessory pillars are 
wanting, and the valleys, much shallower, are not filled 
up with cement. 

Seven years ago, when I happened to be looking crit- 
ically into the bearing of paleontological facts upon the 
doctrine of evolution, it appeared to me that the Anchi- 
therium, the Hipparion, and the modern horses, consti- 
tute a series in which the modifications of structure co- 
incide with the order of chronological occurrence, in 
the manner in which they must coincide, if the modern 
horses really are the result of the gradual metamorphosis, 
in the course of the Tertiary epoch, of a less specialized 
ancestral form. And I found by correspondence with 
the late eminent French anatomist and paleontologist, 
M. Lartet, that he had arrived at the same conclusion 
from the same data. 

That the Anchithertum type had become metamor- 
phosed into the Hipparion type, and the latter into the 
Equine type, in the course of that period of time which 
is represented by the latter half of the Tertiary deposits, 
seemed to me to be the only explanation of the facts for 
which there was even a shadow of probability.* 


*I use the word ‘‘ type’’ because it is highly probable that 
many forms of Anchitherium-like and Hipparion-like animals 
existed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, just as many spe- 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 13 


And, hence, I have ever since held that these facts 
afford evidence of the occurrence of evolution, which, 
in the sense already defined, may be termed demon, 
strative. 

All who have occupied themselves with the structuia 
of Anchitherium, from Cuvier onwards, have acknowl. 
edged its many points of likeness to a well-known geuus 
of extinct Eocene mammals, Palwotherium. Indeed, as 
we have seen, Cuvier regarded his remains of Anchi- 
theriwm as those of a species of Palwotherium. Hence, 
in attempting to trace the pedigree of the horse beyond 
the Miocene epoch and the Anchitheroid form, I natu- 
rally sought among the various species of Paleotheroid 
animals for its nearest ally, and I was led to conclude 
that the Paleothertum minus (Plagtolophus) represented 
the next step more nearly than any form then known. 

I think that this opinion was fully justifiable; but the 
progress of investigation has thrown an unexpected light 
on the question, and has brought us much nearer than 
could have been anticipated to a knowledge of the true 
series of the progenitors of the horse. 

You are all aware that when your country was first 
discovered by Europeans, there were no traces of the 
existence of the horse in any part of the American con- 
tinent. The accounts of the conquest of Mexico dwell 
upon the astonishment of the natives of that country 
when they first became acquainted with that astounding 
phenomenon—a man seated upon a horse. Neverthe- 
less, the investigations of American geologists have 


cies of the horse tribe exist now; and it is highly improbable 
that the particular species of Anchitherium or Hipparion, which 
happen to have been discovered, should be precisely those which 
have formed part of the direct line of the horse’s pedigree. 


14 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


proved that the remains of horses occur in the most su- 
perficial deposits of both North and South America, just 
as they do in Europe. Therefore, for some reason or 
other, no feasible suggestion on that subject, so far as I 
know, has been made—the horse must have died out in 
this continent at some period preceding the discovery of 
America. Of late years there has been discovered in 
your Western Territories that marvellous accumulation 
of deposits, admirably adapted for the preservation of 
organic remains, to which I referred the other evening, 
and which furnishes us with a consecutive series of 
records of the fauna of the older half of the Tertiary 
epoch, for which we have no parallel in Europe. They 
have yielded fossils in an excellent state of conservation 
and in unexampled number and variety. The researches 
of Leidy and others have shown that forms allied to the 
Hipparion and the Anchitherium are to be found among 
these remains. But it is only recently that the admi- 
rably conceived and most thoroughly and patiently 
worked-out investigations of Professor Marsh have 
given us a just idea of the vast fossil wealth and of the 
scientific importance of these deposits. I have had the 
advantage of glancing over the collections in Yale 
Museum, and I can truly say that, so far as my knowl- 
edge extends, there is no collection from any one region 
and series of strata comparable for extent, or for the 
care with which the remains have been got together, or 
for their scientific importance, to the series of fossils 
which he has deposited there. This vast collection has 
yielded evidence bearing upon the question of the pedi- 
gree of the horse of the most striking character. It 
tends to show that we must look to America, rather 
than to Europe, for the original seat of the equine 
series; and that the archaic forms and successive modi- 


- 


Fore Hind Fore 
Foot. Foot. Arm. Leg. Upper Molar. 


RECENT. 


EQUUS, 


PLIOHIPPUS. 


PROTOHIPPUS 
(Hipparion). 


MIOCENE. 


MIOHIPPUS 
(Anchitherium). ' 


MESOHIPPUS, 


EOCENE. 


pip ee 
—s 7 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 15 


fications of the horse’s ancestry are far better preserved 
here than in Europe. 

Professor Marsh’s kindness has enabled me to put 
before you a diagram, every figure in which is an actual 
representation of some specimen which is to be seen at 
Yale at this present time (Fig. 9). 

The succession of forms which he has brought to- 
gether carries us from the top to the bottom of the Ter- 
tiaries. Firstly, there is the true horse. Next we have 
the American Pliocene form of the horse (Pliohippus); 
in the conformation of its limbs it presents some very 
slight deviations from the ordinary horse, and the 
crowns of the grinding teeth are shorter. Then comes 
the Protohippus, which represents the European Hippa- 
rion, having one large digit and two small ones on each 
foot, and the general characters of the fore-arm and leg 
to which I have referred. But it is more valuable than 
the European Hipparion for the reason that it is devoid 
of some of the peculiarities of that form—peculiarities 
which tend to show that the European Hipparion is - 
rather a member of a collateral branch than a form in 
the direct line of succession. Next, in the backward 
order in time, is the Miohippus, which corresponds 
pretty nearly with the Anchithertum of Europe. It 
presents three complete toes—one large median and two 
smaller Jateral ones; and there is a rudiment of that 
digit which answers to the little finger of the human 
hand. 

The European record of the pedigree of the horse 
stops here; in the American Tertiaries, on the contrary, 
the series of ancestral equine forms is continued into 
the Eocene formations. An older Miocene form, 
termed Mesohippus, has three toes in front, with a large 
splint-like rudiment representing the little finger, and 


4 


16 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


three toes behind. The radius and ulna, the tibia and 
the fibula, are dislinct, and the short-crowned molar 
teeth are anchitheroid in pattern. : 

But the most important discovery of all is the Oro- 
hippus, which comes from the Eocene formation, and 
is the oldest member of the equine series, as yet known. 
Here we find four complete toes on the front limb, 
three toes on the hind limb, a well-developed ulna, a 
well-developed fibula, and short-crowned grinders of 
simple pattern. 

Thus, thanks to these important researches, it has be- 
come evident that, so far as our present knowledge ex- 
tends, the history of the horse-type is exactly and pre- 
cisely that which could have been predicted from a 
knowledge of the principles of evolution. And the 
knowledge we now p®ssess justifies us completely in the 
anticipation that when the still lower Eocene deposits, 
and those which belong to the Cretaceous epoch, have 
yielded up their remains of ancestral equine animals, we 
shall find, first, a form with four complete toes and a 
rudiment of the innermost or first digit in front, with, 
probably, a rudiment of the fifth digit in the hind foot;* 
while, in still older forms, the series of the digits will 
be more and more complete, until we come to the five- 
toed animals, in which, if the doctrine of evolution is 
well founded, the whole series must have taken its 
origin. | 

That is what I mean by demonstrative evidence of ev- 
olution. An inductive hypothesis is said to be demon- 


* Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has discov- 
ered a new genus of equine mammals (Hohippus) from the low- 
est Eocene deposits of the West, which corresponds very nearly 
to this description.—American Journal of Science, November, 
1876. 


a 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 17 


strated when the facts are shown to be in entire accord- 
ance with it. If that is not scientific proof, there are 
no merely inductive conclusions which can be said to 
be proved. And the doctrine of evolution, at the pres- 
ent time, rests upon exactly as secure a foundation as 
the Copernican theory of the motions of the heavenly 
bodies did at the time of its promulgation. Its logical 
basis is precisely of the same character—the coinci- 
dence of the observed facts with theoretical require- 
ments. 

The only way of escape, if it be a way of escape, 
from the conclusions which I have just indicated, is the 
supposition that all these different equine forms have 
been created separately at separate epochs of time; and, 
I repeat, that of such an hypothesis as this there nei- 
ther is, nor can be, any scientific evidence; and assur- 
edly, so far as I know, there is none which is support- 
ed, or pretends to be supported, by evidence or author- 
ity of any other kind. I can but think that the time 
will come when such suggestions as these, such obvious 
attempts to escape the force of demonstration, will be 
put upon the same footing as the supposition made by 
some writers, who are, I believe, not completely ex- 
tinct at present, that fossils are mere simulacra, are no 
indications of the former existence of the animals to 
which they seem to belong; but that they are either 
sports of Nature, or special creations, intended—as J 
heard suggested the other day—to test our faith. 

In fact, the whole evidence is in favor of evolution, 
and there is none against it. And I say this, although 
perfectly well aware of the seeming difficulties which 
have been built up upon what appears to the uninformed 
to be a solid foundation. I meet constantly with the 
argument that the doctrine of evolution cannot be well 


18 THE EHLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


founded, because it requires the lapse of a very vast pe- 
riod of time; while the duration of life upon the earth, 
thus implied, is inconsistent with the conclusions ar- 
rived at by the astronomer and the physicist. I may 
venture to say that I am familiar with those conclusions, 
inasmuch as some years ago, when President of the Ge- 
ological Society of London, I took the liberty of criti- 
cising them, and of showing in what respects, as it ap- 
peared to me, they lacked complete and thorough dem- 
onstration. But, putting that point aside, suppose that, 
as the astronomers, or some of them, and some physical 
philosophers, tell us, it is impossible that life could have 
endured upon the earth for as long a period as is re- 
quired by the doctrine of evolution—supposing that to 
be proved—I desire to be informed what is the foun- 
dation for the statement that evolution does require so 
great a time. The biologist knows nothing whatever 
of the amount of time which may be required for the 
process of evolution. It is a matter of fact that the 
equine forms, which I have described to you, occur in 
the order stated in the tertiary formations. But I have 
not the slightest means of ‘guessing whether it took a 
million of years, or ten millions, or a hundred millions, 
or a thousand millions of years, to give rise to that se- 
ries of changes. A biologist has no means of arriving 
at any conclusion as to the amount of time which may 
be needed for a certain quantity of organic change. He 
takes his time from the geologist. The geologist, con- 
sidering the rate at which deposits are.formed and the 
rate at which denudation goes on upon the surface of 
the earth, arrives at more or less justifiable conclusions 
as to the time which is required for the deposit of a cer- 
tain thickness of rocks; and if he tells me that the ter- 
tiary formations required 500,000,000 years for their de- 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 19 


‘posit, I suppose he has good ground for what he says, 
and I take that as a measure of the duration of the evo- 
Jution of the horse from the Orohippus up to its present 
condition. And, if he is right, undoubtedly evolution 
is a very slow process, and requires a great deal of 
time. But suppose, now, that an astronomer or a phys- 
icist—for instance, my friend Sir William Thomson— 
tells me that my geological authority is quite wrong; 
and that he has weighty evidence to show that life could 
not possibly have existed upon the surface of the earth 
500,000,000 years ago, because the earth would have 
then been too hot to allow of life, my reply is: ‘‘ That 
is not my affair; settle that with the geologist, and when 
you have come to an agreement among yourselves, I 
will adopt your conclusion.” We take our time from 
the geologists and physicists; and it is monstrous that, 
having taken our time from the physical philosopher’s 
clock, the physical philosopher should turn round upon 
us, and say we are too fast or too slow. What we de- 
sire to know is, is it a fact that evolution took place? 
As to the amount of time which evolution may have 
occupied, we are in the hands of the physicists and as- 
tronomers, whose business it is to deal with those ques- 
tions. 

I have now, ladies and gentlemen, arrived at the con- 
clusion of the task which I set before myself when I un. 
dertook to deliver these lectures. My purpose has been, 
not to enable those among you who have paid no atten- 
tion to these subjects before, to leave this room in a 
condition to decide upon the validity or the invalidity 
of the hypothesis of evolution; but I have desired to 
put before you the principles upon which all hypothe. 
ses respecting the history of Nature must be judged; 
and furthermore, to make apparent the nature of the 


20 THE EKLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


evidence and the amount of cogency which is to be ex- 
pected and may be obtained from it. To this end, I 
have not hesitated to regard you as genuine students 
and persons desirous of knowing the truth. I have not 
shrunk from taking you through long discussions, that 
I fear may have sometimes tried your patience; and I 
have inflicted upon you details which were indispensa- 
ble, but which may well have been wearisome. But I 
shall rejoice—I shall consider that I have done you the 
greatest service which it was in my power to do—if I 
have thus convinced you that the great question which 
we have been discussing is not one to be dealt with by 
rhetorical flourishes, or by loose and superficial talk; 
but that it requires the keen attention of the trained in- 
tellect and the patience of the accurate observer. 

When I commenced this series of Jectures, 1 did not 
think it necessary to preface them with a prologue, such 
as might be expected from a stranger and a foreigner; 
for during my brief stay in your country, I have found 
it very hard to believe that a stranger could be possessed 
of so many friends, and almost harder that a foreigner 
could express himself in your language in such a way as 
to be, to all appearances, so readily intelligible. So far 
as I can judge, that most intelligent, and, perhaps, I 
may add, most singularly active and enterprising body, 
your press reporters, do not seem to have been deterred 
by my accent from giving the fullest account of every- 
thing that I happen to have said. 

But the vessel in which I take my departure is even 
now ready to slip her moorings; I awake from my de- 
lusion that I am other than a stranger and a foreigner. 
I am ready to go back to my place and country; but, 
before doing so, let me, by way of epilogue, tender to 
you my most hearty thanks for the kind and cordial re- 


EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 21 


ception which you have accorded to me; and let me 
thank you still more for that which is the greatest com- 
pliment which can be afforded to any person in my po- 
sition—the continuous and undisturbed attention which 
you. have bestowed upon the long argument which I 
have had the honor to lay before you. 


ee 


fe; 


ute 


a rrbat ay elise ’ 


4 


BE ilytite 3: 


Cy f of Hie sas 


WORLD-SMASHING. 


Str W. THomson’s moss-grown fragment of a 
shattered world is not yet forgotten. In the current 
number of the Cornhill Magazine (January, 1872) it 
is very severely handled; the more severely, because 
the writer, though treating the subject quite popu- 
larly, shows the fallacy of the hypothesis, even when 
regarded from the point of view of Sir W. Thom- 
son’s own special department of stuiy. That an 
eminent mathematician should make a great slip 
when he ventures upon geological or physiological 
ground is not at all surprising; it is, in fact, quite to 
be expected, as there can be no doubt that the close 
study of pure mathematics, by directing the mind to 
processes of calculation rather than to phenomena, 
induces that sublime indifference to facts which has 
characterized the purely mathematical intellect of all 
ages, 

It is not surprising that a philosopher who has 
been engaged in measuring the imaginary diameter, 
describing the imaginary oscillations and gyrations 
of imaginary atoms, and the still more complex im- 
aginary behavior of the imaginary constituents of 
the imaginary atmospheres by which the mathemat- 
ical imagination has surrounded these imaginary 
atoms, should overlook the vulgar fact that neither 
mosses nor other vegetables, nor even their seeds, 
can possibly retain their vitality when ultimately 
exposed to the temperature of a blast furnace, ani 


rae 


34 EHLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


that of two or three hunared degrees below the freez- 
ing point; but it is rather surprising that the purely 
mathematical basis of this very original hypothesis 
of so great a mathematician should be mathematic- 
ally fallacious—in plain language, a mathematical 
blunder. 

In order to supply the seed-bearing meteoric frag- . 
ment by which each planet is to be stocked with life, 
it is necessary, according to Sir W. Thomson, that 
two worlds—one at least flourishing with life—shall 
be smashed; and, in order to get them smashed with 
a sufficient amount of frequency to supply the 
materials for his hypothesis, the learned President 
of the British Association has, in accordance with 
the customary ingenuity of mathematical theorists, 
worked out the necessary mathematical conditions, 
and states with unhesitating mathematical assurance 
that—‘‘It is as sure that collisions must occur be- 
tween great masses moving through space, as itis 
that ships, steered without intelligence directed to 
prevent collision, could not cross and recross the 
Atlantic for thousands of years with immunity from 
collision.” 

The author of the paper in the Cornhill denies this 
very positively, and without going into the mathe- 
matical details, points out the basis upon which it 
may be mathematically refuted—viz., that all such 
worlds are travelling in fixed or regular orbits around 
their primaries or suns, while each of these primaries 
travelsin its own necessary path, carrying with it all 
its attendants, which still move about him, just as 
though he had no motion of his own. 

These are the conclusions of Newtonian dynamics, 
the sublime simplicity of which contrasts so curiously 
with the complex dreams of the modern atom-split- 
ters, and which make a further and still more strik- 
ing contrast by their exact and perfect accordance 
with actual and visible phenomena. 

Newton has taught us that there can be no planets 


2 


WORLD-SMASHING. 35 


travelling-at random like the Sir W. Thomson’s im- 
aginary ships with blind:pilots, and by following up 
his reasoning, we reach the conclusion, that among 
all the countless millions of worlds that people the 
infinity of space, there is no more risk of collision 
than there is between any two of the bodies that 
constitute our own solar system. 

All the observations of astronomers, both before 
and since the discovery of the telescope, confirm 
- this conclusion. The long nightly watching of the 
Chaldean shepherds, the star-counting, star-gauging, 
star-mupping, and other laborious gazing of medieval 
and modern astronomers, have failed to discover any 
collision, or any motion tending to collision, among 
the myriads of heavenly bodies whose positions and 
movements have been so faithfully and diligently 
studied. Thus, the hypothesis of creation which 
demands the destruction of two worlds in order to 
effect the sowing of a seed, is as inconsistent with 
sound dynamics as it is repugnant to common 
sense. . 

This subject suggests a similar one, which was 
discussed a few months since at the Academy of 
Sciences of Paris. On January 30th last M. St. 
Meunier read a paper on ‘‘ The mode of rupture of 
a star, from which meteors are derived.” The author 
starts with the assumption that meteors have been 
produced by the rupture of a world, basing this as- 
sumption upon the arguments he has stated in pre- 
vious papers. He discards altogether Sir W. Thom- 
son’s idea of a collision between two worlds, but 
works out a conclusion quite as melancholy. 

He begins, like most other builders of cosmical the- 
ories, with the hypothesis that this and all the other 
worlds of space began their existence in a condition 
of nebulous infancy; that they gradually condensed 
into molten liquids, and then cooled down till they 
obtained a thin outside crust of solid matter, resting 
upon a molten globe within; that this crust then 


3 


36 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


gradually thickened as the world grew older and 
cooled down by radiation. I will not stop to dis- 
cuss this nebular and cooling-down hypothesis at 
present, though it is but fair to state that ‘‘I don’t 
believe a bit of it.” 

Taking all this for granted—a considerable assump- 
tion—M. St. Meunier reasons very ably upon what 
must follow if we further assume that each world is 
somehow supplied with air and water, and that the 
atmosphere and the ocean of each world are limited 
and unconnected with those of any other world, or 
with any general interstellar medium. 

What, then, will happen as worlds grow old? As 
they cool down, they must contract; the liquid inside 
can manage this without any inconvenience to itself, 
but not so with the outer spherical shell of solid mat- 
ter. As the. inner or hotter part of this contracts, 
the cool outside must crumble up in order to follow 
it, and thus mountain chains and great valleys, lesser 
hills and dales, besides faults and slips, dykes, earth- 
quakes, volcanoes, etc., are explained. 

According to M. St. Meunier, the moon has reached 
a more advanced period of cosmical existence than 
the earth. She is our senior; and like the old man 
who shows his gray hairs and tottering limbs to in- 
considerate youth, she shines a warning upon our 
gay young world, telling her that— 


Let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come 


—that the air and ocean must pass away, that all the 
living creatures of the earth must perish, and the 
desolation shall come about in this wise. 

At present the interior of our planet is described 
as a molten fluid, with a solid crust outside. Asthe 
world cools down with age, this crust will thicken 
and crack, and crack again, as the lower part con- 
tracts. This will form rainwres, ¢.e., long narrow 
chasms, of vast depths, which, like those on the 


4 


WORLD-SMASHING. 37 


moon, will traverse, without deviation, the moun- 
tains, valleys, plains, and ocean-beds; the waters will 
fall into these, and, after violent catastrophes, aris- 
ing from their boiling by contact with the hot inter- 
ior, they will finally disappear from the surface, and 
become absorbed in the pores of the vastly thickened 
earth-crust, and in the caverns, cracks, and chasms 
which the rending contraction will open in the inter- 
ior. These cavities will continue to increase, will 
become of huge magnitude when the outside crust 
grows thick enough to form its own supporting arch, 
for then the fused interior will recede, and form 
mighty vaults that will engulf not the waters merely, 
but all the atmosphere likewise. 

At this stage the earth, according to M. St. Meu- 
nier, will be a middle- aged world like the moon; but 
as old age advances the contraction of the fluid, or 
viscous interior beneath the outside solid crust will 
continue, and the raénures will extend in length and 
depth and width, as he maintains they are now grow- 
ing inthe moon. This, he says, must continue till 
the centre solidifies, and then these cracks will reach 
that centre, and the world will be split through in 
fragments corresponding to the different rainures. 

Thus we shall have a planet composed of several 
solid fragments held together only by their mutual 
attractions, but the rotary movement of these will, 
according to the French philosopher, become un- 
equal, as ‘‘ the fragments present different densities, 
and are situated at unequal distances from the centre; 
some will be accelerated, others retarded; they will 
rub against each other, and grind away those por- 
tions which have the weakest cohesion.” The frag- 
ments thus worn off will, ‘‘at the end of sufficient 
time, girdle with a complete ring the central star.” 
At this stage the fragments become real meteors, and 
then perform all the meteoric functions excepting 
the seed-carrying of Sir W. Thomson. 

It would be an easy task to demolish these specu- 


5 


38 HLIZHEVIR LIBRARY. 


lations, though not within the space of one of my 
letters. A glance at the date of this paper, and the 
state of Paris and the French mind at the time, may, 
to some extent, explain the melancholy relish with 
which the Parisian philosopher works out his dole- 
ful speculations. Had the French army marched 
vigorously to Berlin, I doubt whether this paper 
would ever have found its way into the ‘‘ Comptes 
Rendus.” After the fall of Paris, and the wholesale 
capitulation of the French armies, it was but natural 
that a patriotic Frenchman, howsoever strong his 
philosophy, should speculate on the collapse of all 
the stars, and the general winding-up of the universe. 


6 


METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 


THE number of the Quarterly Journal of Science 
for May, 1872, contains some articles of considerable 
interest. The first is by the indefatigable Mr. Proc- 
tor, on ‘‘Meteoric Astronomy,” in which he em- 
bodies a clear and popular summary of the researches 
which have earned for Signor Schiaparelli this year’s 
gold medal of the Astronomical Society. Like all who 
venture upon a broad, bold effort of scientific thought, 
extending at all into the regions of philosophical 
theory, Schiaparelli has had to wait for recognition. 
A simple and merely mechanical observation of a 
bare fact, barely and mechanically recorded without 
the exercise of any other of the intellectual faculties 
than the external senses and observing powers, is at 
once received and duly honored by the scientific 
world; but any higher effort is received at first in- 
differently, or sceptically, and is only accepted after 
a period of probation, directly proportionate to its 
philosophical magnitude and importance, and_in- 
versely proportionate to the scientific status of the 
daring theorist, 

At first sight this appears unjust: it looks like 
honoring the laborers who merely make the bricks, 
and despising the architect who constructs the edi- 
fice of philosophy from the materials they provide. 
Many a disappointed dreamer, finding that his 
theory of the universe has not been accepted, and 
that the expected honors have not been showered 


rf 


40 HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


upon him, has violently attacked the whole scientific 
community as a contemptible gang of low-minded 
mechanical plodders, void of imagination, blind to 
all poetic aspirations, and incapable of any grand 
and comprehensive flight of intellect. 

Had these impulsive gentlemen been previously 
subjected to the strict discipline of inductive scientific 
training, their position and opinions would have 
been very different. Their great theories would 
either have had no existence, or have been much 
smaller, and they would understand that philosophic 
caution is one of the characteristic results of scientific 
training. 

Simple facts, which can be immediately proved 
by simple experiments and simple observations, are 
at once accepted, and their discoverers duly honored, 
without any hesitation or delay, but the grander 
efforts of generalization require careful thought and 
laborious scrutiny for their verification, and there- 
fore the acknowledgment of their merits is neces- 
sarily delayed; but when it does arrive full justice is 
usually done. 

Thus Grove’s ‘‘ Correlation of the Physical Forces,” 
the greatest philosophical work on purely physical 
science of this generation, was commenced in 1842, 
when its author occupied but a humble position at 
the London Institution. The book was but little 
noticed for many years, and, had Mr. Grove (now 
Sir William Grove) not been duly educated by the 
discipline above referred to, he might have become 
a noisy cantankerous martyr, one of those ‘‘IIl- 
used men” who have been made familiar to so many 
audiences by Mr. George Dawson. 

Instead of this, he patiently waited, and, as we 
have lately seen, the well-deserved honors have been 
liberally awarded. 

In a very few years hence we shall be able to say 
the same of the once diabolical Darwin, and eight 
or nine other theorists, who must all be content to 


8 


METHORIC ASTRONOMY. 4l 


take their trial and patiently await the verdict; the 
time of waiting being of necessity proportionate to 
the magnitude of the issue, 

The theories of Schiaparelli, which, as Mr. Proc- 
tor says, ‘‘after the usual term of doubt have so 
recently received the sanction of the highest astrono- 
mical tribunal of Great Britain,” are not of so purely 
speculative a character as to demand a very long 
‘term of doubt.” They are directly based on obser- 
vations and mathematical calculations which bring 
them under the domain of the recognized logic of 
mathematical probability. Those who are specially 
interested in the modern progress of astronomy 
should read this article in the Quarterly Journal of 
Science, which is illustrated with the diagrams neces- 
sary for the comprehension of the researches and 
reasoning of Schiaparelli and others who have worked 
on the same ground. 

I can only state the general results, which are that 
the meteors which we see every year, more or less 
abundantly on the nights of the 10th and 11th of 
August, and which always appear to come from the 
same point in the heavens, are then and thus visible 
because they form part of an eccentric elliptical 
zone of meteoric bodies which girdle the domain of 
the sun; and that our earth, in the course of its an- 
nual journey round the sun, crosses and plunges 
more or less deeply into the ellipse of small attendant 
bodies, which are supposed to be moving in regular 
orbits around the sun, 

Schiaparelli has compared the position, the di- 
rection, and the velocity of motion of the August 
meteors with the orbit of the great comet of 1862, 
and infers that there is a close connection between 
them, so close that the meteors may be regarded as 
a sort of trail which the comet has left behind. He 
does not exactly say that they are detached vertebre 
of the comet’s tail, but suggests the possibility of 
their original connection with its head. 


9 


42 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


Similar observations have been made upon the 
November meteoric showers, which, by similar 
reasoning, are associated with another comet; and 
further yet, it is assumed upon analogy that other 
recognized meteor systems, amounting to nearly two 
hundred in number, are in like manner associated 
with other comets. 

If these theories are sound, our diagrams and 
mental pictures of the solar system must be materi- 
ally modified. Besides the central sun, the eight 
planets, and the asteroids moving in their nearly 
circular orbits and some eccentric comets travelling 
in long ellipses, we must add a countless multitude of 
small bodies clustered in elliptical rings, all travel- 
ling together in the path marked by their containing 
girdle, and following the lead of a streaming vapor- 
ous monster, their parent comet. 

We must count such comets, and such rings filled 
with attendant fragments, not merely by tens or 
hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, 
even by millions; the path of the earth being but a 
thread in space, and yet a hundred or two are strung 
upon it. 

In this article Mr. Proctor seems strongly disposed 
to return to the theory which attributes solar heat 
and light to a bombardment of meteors from with- 
out, and the solar corona and zodiacal light as visi- 
ble presentments of these meteors. Still, however, 
he clings to the more recent explanation which re- 
gards the corona, the zodiacal light, and the meteors 
as matter ejected from the sun by the same forces as 
those producing the solar prominences. For my 
own part I shall not be at all surprised if we find 
that, ere long, these two apparently. conflicting hy- 
potheses are fully reconciled. 

The progress of solar discovery has been so great 
since January, 1870, when my ejection theory was 
published, that I may now carry it out much further 
than I then dared, or was justified in daring, to ven- 


10 


METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 43 


ture. Actual measurement of the projectile forces 
displayed in some of the larger prominences renders 
it not merely possible, but even very probable, that 
some of the exceptionally great eruptive efforts of 
the sun may be sufficiently powerful to eject solar 
material beyond the reclaiming reach of his own 
gravitating power. 

In such a case the banished matter must go on 
wandering through the boundless profundity of space 
until it reaches the domain of some other sun, which 
will clutch the fragment with less gravitating ener- 
gies, and turn its straight and ever-onward course 
into a curved orbit. Thus the truant morsel from 
our sun will become the subject of another sun—a 
portion of another solar system. 

What one sun may do, another and every other 
may do likewise, and, if so, there must be a mutual 
bombardment, a ceaseless interchange of matter be- - 
tween the countless suns of the universe. This is a 
startling view of our cosmical relations, but we are 
driving rapidly toward a general recognition of it. 

The November star showers have perpetrated some 
irregularities this year. They have been very un- 
punctual, and have not come from their right place. 
We have heard something from Italy, but not the 
tidings of the Leonides that were expected. Instead 
of the great display of the month occurring on the 
13th and 14th, it was seen on the 27th. We have 
accounts from different parts of England, Ireland, 
Scotland, and Wales, also from Italy, Greece, Egypt, 
etc. 

Mr. Slinto, in a letter to the Times, estimates the 
number seen at Suez as reaching at least 30,000, while 
in Italy and Athens about 200 per minute were ob- 
served. They were not, however, the Leonides— 
that is, they did not radiate from a point in the con 
stellation Leo, but from the region of Andromeda. 
Therefore they were distinct from that system of 
small wanderers usually designated the ‘‘ November 


11 


44 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


meteors,” were not connected with Tempel’s comet 
(comet 1, 1866), but belonged to quite another set. 

The question now discussed by astronomers is 
whether they are connected with any other comet, 
and, if so, with which comet? 

In the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 
Society, published October 24th last, is a very inter- 
esting paper by Professor Herschel, on ‘‘ Observa- 
tions of Meteor Showers,” supposed to be connected 
with ‘‘ Biela’s comet,” in which he recommends that 
‘¢a watch should be kept during the last week in No- 
vember aud the first week in December,” in order 
to verify ‘‘ the ingenious suggestions of Dr. Weiss,” 
which, popularly stated, amount to this—viz., that 
a meteoric cloud is revolving in the same orbit as 
Biela’s comet, and that in 1772 the earth dashed 
through this meteoric orbit on December 10th. In 
1826 it did the same on December 4th; in 1852 the 
earth passed through the node on November 28th, 
and there are reasons for expecting a repetition at 
about the same date in 1872. 

The magnificent display of the 27th has afforded 
an important verification of these anticipations which 
become especially interesting in connection with the 
curious history of Biela’s comet, which receives its 
name from M. Biela, of Josephstadt, who observed 
it in 1826, calculated its orbit, and considered it iden- 
tical with the comets of 1772, 1805, etc. It travels 
in a long eccentric ellipse, and completes its orbits 
in 2410 days—about 62 years. It appeared again, as 
predicted, in 1832 and 1846. 

Its orbit very nearly intersects that of the earth, 
and thus affords a remote possibility of that sort of 
collision which has excited so much terror in the 
minds of many people, but which an enthusiastic 
astronomer of the present generation would antici- 
pate with something like the sensational interest 
which stirs the soul of a London street-boy when he 
is madly struggling to keep pace with a fire-engine, 

d 12 


METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 45 


The calculations for 1832 showed that this comet 
should cross the earth’s orbit a little before the time 
of the earth’s arrival at the same place; but as such 
a comet, travelling in such an orbit, is liable to possi- 
ble retardations, the calculations could only be ap- 
proximately accurate, and thus the sensational as- 
tronomer was not altogether without hope. This 
time, however, he was disappointed; the comet was 
punctual, and crossed the critical node about a month 
before the earth reached it. 

As though to compensate for this disappointment, 
the comet at its next appearance exhibited some en- 
tirely new phenomena. It split itself into two com- 
ets, in such a manner that the performance was visi- 
ble to the telescopic observer. Both of these comets 
had nuclei and short tails, and they alternately varied 
in brightness, sometimes one, then the other, having 
the advantage. They traveled on at a distance of about 
156,000 miles from each other, with parallel tails, 
and with a sort of friendly communication in the 
form of a faint are of light, which extended, as a 
kind of bridge, from one to the other. Besides this, 
the one which was first the brighter, then the fainter, 
and finally the brighter again, threw out two addi- 
tional tails, one of which extended lovingly towards 
its companion. 

The time of return in 1852 was, of course, anx- 
iously expected by astronomers, and careful watch 
was kept for the wanderers. They came again at 
the calculated time, still separated as before. 

They were again due in 1859, in 1866, and, finally, 
at about the end of last November, or the beginning 
of the present month. Though eagerly looked for 
by astronomers in all parts of the civilized world, 
they have been seen no more since 1852. 

What, then, has become of them? Have they 
further subdivided? Have they crumbled into me- 
teoric dust? Have they blazed or boiled into thin 
air? or have they been dragged by some interfering 


13 


46 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


gravitation into another orbit? The last supposition 
is the most improbable, as none of the visible inhab- 
itants of space have come near enough to disturb 
them. 

The possibility of a dissolution into smaller frag- 
ments is suggested by the fact that, instead of the 
original single comet, or the two fragments, meteoric 
showers have fallen toward the earth at the time 
when it has crossed the orbit of the original comet, 
and these showers have radiated from that part of 
the heavens in which the comet should have ap- 
peared. Such was the case with the magnificent 
display of November 27th, and astronomers are in- 
clining more and more to the idea that comets and 
meteors have a common origin—that meteors are 
little comets, or comets are big meteors. 

In the latest of the Monthly Notices of the Royal 
Astronomical Society, published last week, is a pa- 
per by Mr. Proctor, in which he expands the theory 
expounded three years ago by an author whom your 
correspondent’s modesty prevents him from naming 
—viz., that the larger planets—Jupiter, Saturn, 
Uranus, and Neptune—are minor suns, ejecting me- 
teoric matter from them by the operation of forces 
similar to those producing the solar prominences. 

Mr. Proctor subjects this bold hypothesis to mathe- 
matical examination, and finds that the orbit of Tem- 
pel’s comet and its companion meteors correspond to 
that which would result from such an eruption oc- 
curring on the planet Uranus. An eruptive force 
effecting a velocity of about thirteen miles per sec- 
ond, which is vastly smaller than the actually meas- 
ured velocity of the matter of the solar eruptions, 
would be sufficient to thrust such meteoric or come- 
tary matter beyond the reclaiming reach of the gravi- 
tation of Uranus, and hand it over to the sun, to 
make just such an orbit as that of Tempel’s comet 
and the Leonides meteors. 

He shows that other comets and meteoric zones 


14 


METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 47 


are similarly allied to other planets, and thus it may 
be that the falling stars and comets are fragments of 
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune. Verily, if an 
astronomer of the last generation were to start up 
among us now, he would be astounded at modern 
presumption. 

The star shower of November 27th, and its con- 
nection with Biela’s broken and lost comet, referred 
to in my last letter, are still subjects of research and 
speculation. On November 30th Professor Klink- 
erfues sent to Mr. Pogson, of the Madras Observa- 
tory, the following startling telegram: ‘‘ Biela touched 
earth on 27th. Search near Theta Centauri.” 

Mr. Pogson searched accordingly from comet-rise 
to sunrise on the two following mornings, but in 
vain; for even in India they have had cloudy weather 
of late. On the third day, however, he had ‘better 
luck,” saw something like a comet through an open- 
ing between clouds, and on the following days was 
enabled to deliberately verify this observation and 
determine the position and some elements of the 
motion of the comet, which displayed a bright nu- 
cleus, and faint. but distinct tail. 

This discovery is rather remarkable in connection 
with the theoretical anticipation of Professor Klink- 
erfues; but the conclusion directly suggested is by 
no means admitted by astronomers. Some have sup- 
posed that it is not the primary Biela, but the secon- 
dary comet, or offshoot, which grazed the earth, and 
was seen by Mr. Pogson; others that it was neither 
the body, the envelope, nor the tail of either of the 
comets which formed the star shower, but that the 
meteors of November 27th were merely a trail which 
the comet left behind. 

A multitude of letters were read at the Jast and 
previous meeting of the Astronomical Society, in 
which the writers described the details of their own 
observations. As these letters came from nearly all 
parts of the world, the data have an unusual degree 


15 


48 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


of completeness, and show very strikingly the value 
of the work of amateur astronomical observers. 

By the collation and comparison of these, impor- 
tant inductions are obtainable. Thus, Professor 
A. §. Herschel concludes that the earth passed 
through seven strata of meteoric bodies, having each 
a thickness of about 50,000 miles—in all about 
350,000 miles. As the diameter of the visible nebu- 
losity of Biela’s comet was but 40,000 miles when 
nearest the earth in 1832, the great thickness of 
ee strata indicates something beyond the comet 
itself. 

Besides this, Mr. Hind’s calculation for the return 
of the primary comet shows that on November 27th 
it was 250 millions of miles from the earth. 

Those, however, who are determined to enjoy the 
sensation of supposing that they really have been 
brushed by the tail of a comet? still have the secondary 
comet to fallback upon. This, as already described, 
was broken off the original, from which it was seen 
gradually to diverge, but was still linked to it by an 
arch of nebulous matter. 

If this divergence has continued, it must now be 
far distant—sufiiciently far to afford me an oppor- 
tunity of safely adding another to the numerous 
speculations—viz., that we may, on November 27th, 
have plunged obliquely through this connecting arm 
of nebulous matter, which was seen stretching be- 
tween the parent comet and its offshoot. The actual 
position of the meteoric strata above referred to is 
quite consistent with this hypothesis. 


16 


—_ 


— > 


THE ORIGIN OF LUNAR VOL- 
CANOES. 


Many theoretical efforts, some of considerable 
violence, have been made to reconcile the supposed 
physical contradiction presented by the great magni- 
tude and area of former volcanic activity of the 
Moon, and the present absence of water on its sur- 
face. So long as we accept the generally received 
belief that water isa necessary agent in the evolution 
of volcanic forces, the difficulties presented by the 
lunar surface are rather increased than diminished 
by further examination and speculation. 

We know that the lava, scorie, dust, and other 
products of volcanic action on this earth are mainly 
composed of mixed silicates—those of alumina and 
lime preponderating. When we consider that the 
solid crust of the Earth is chiefly composed of silicic 
acid, and of basic oxides and carbonates which com- 
bine with silicic acid when heated, a natural neces- 
sity for such a composition of volcanic products be- 
comes evident. 

If the Moon is composed of similar materials to 
those of the Earth, the fusion of its crust must 
produce similar compounds, as they are formed in- 
dependently of any atmospheric or aqueous agency. 

This being the case, the phenomena presented by 
the cooling of fused masses of mixed silicates in the 
absence of water become very interesting. Oppor- 
tunities of studying such phenomena are offered at 


aa 


50 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


our great iron-works, where fused masses of iron 
cinder, composed mainly of mixed silicates, are con- 
tinually to be seen in the process of cooling under a 
variety of circumstances. 

I have watched the cooling of such masses very 
frequently, and have seen abundant displays of 
miniature volcanic phenomena, especially marked 
where the cooling has occurred under conditions 
most nearly resembling those of a gradually cooling 
planet or satellite; that is, when the fused cinder 
has been inclosed by a solid resisting and contracting 
crust. 

The most remarkable that I have seen are those 
presented by the cooling of the ‘‘ tap cinder” from 
puddling furnaces. This, as it flows from the fur- 
nace, is received in stout iron boxes (‘‘ cinder- 
bogies”) of circular or rectangular horizontal section. 
The following phenomena are usually observable on 
the cooling of the fused cinder in a circular bogie. 

First, a thin solid crust forms on the red-hot sur- 
face. This speedily cools sufficiently to blacken. 
If pierced by a slight thrust from an iron rod, 
the red-hot matter within is seen to be in a state of 
seething activity, and a considerable quantity exudes 
from the opening. Ifa bogie filled with fused cin- 
der is left undisturbed, a veritable spontaneous vol- 
canic eruption takes place through some portion, 
generally near the centre, of the solid crust. In 
some cases this eruption is sufficiently violent to 
eject small spurts of molten cinder to a height equal 
to four or five diameters of the whole mass. 

The crust once broken, a regular crater is rapidly 
formed, and miniature streams of lava continue to 
pour from it; sometimes slowly and regularly, occa- 
sionally with jerks and spurts due to the bursting of 
bubbles of gas. The accumulation of these lava- 
streams forms a regular cone, the height of which 
goes on increasing. I have seen a bogie about 10 or 
12 inches in diameter, and 9 or 10 inches deep, thus 


18 


LUNAR VOLCANOES. 51 


surmounted by a cone above 5 inches high, with a 
base equal to the whole diameter of the bogie. 
These cones and craters could be but little improved 
by a modeller desiring to represent a typical volcano 
in miniature. 

Similar craters and cones are formed on the surface 
of cinder which is not confined by the sides of the 
bogie. I have seen them well displayed on the 
‘‘running-out beds,” of refinery furnaces. These, 
when filled, form a small lake of molten iron covered 
with a layer cinder. This cinder first skins over, as 
in the bogies, then small crevasses form in this crust, 
and through these the fused cinder oozes from be- 
low. The outflow from this chasm soon becomes 
localized, so as to form a single crater, or a small 
chain of craters; these gradually develop into cones 
by the accumulation of outflowing lava, so that 
when the whole mass has solidified, it is covered 
more or less thickly with a number of such _ hil- 
locks. These, however, are much smaller than in 
the former case, reaching to only one or two inches 
in height, with a proportionate base, It is evident 
that the dimensions of these miniature volcanoes are 
determined mainly by the depth of the molten mat- 
ter from which they are formed. In the case of the 
bogies, they are exaggerated by the over powering 
resistance of the solid iron bottom and sides, which 
force all the exudation in the one direction of least 
resistance—viz., toward the centre of the thin upper 
crust, and thus a single crater and a single cone of 
the large relative dimensions above described are 
commonly formed. 

The magnitude and perfection of these miniature 
volcanoes vary considerably with the quality of the 
pig-iron and the treatment it has received, and the 
difference appears to depend upon the evolution of 
gases, such as carbonic oxide, volatile chlorides, 
fluorides, etc. I mention the fluorides particularly, 
having been recently engaged in making some ex- 

19 


52 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


periments on Mr. Henderson’s process for refining 
pig-iron, by exposing it when fused to the action of 
a mixture of fluoride of calcium and oxides of iron, 
alumina, manganese, etc. ~The cinder separated 
from this iron displayed the phenomena above de- 
scribed very remarkably, and jets of yellowish flame 
were thrown up from the craters while the lava was 
flowing. The flame was succeeded by dense white 
vapors as the temperature of the cinder lowered, and 
a deposit of snow-like, flocculent crystals was left 
upon and around the mouth or crater of each cone. 
The miniature representation of cosmical eruptions 
was thus rendered still more striking, even to the 
white deposit of the haloid salts which Palmieri 
has described as remaining after the recent eruption 
of Vesuvius. 

The gases thus evolved have not yet been analyti- 
cally examined, and the details of the powerful 
reactions displayed in this process still demand 
further study; but there can be no doubt that the 
combination of silicic acid with the base of the flour- 
spar is the fundamental reaction to which the evolu- 
tion of the volatile fluorides, etc., is mainly due. 

A corresponding evolution of gases takes place in 
cosmical volcanic action, whenever silicic acid is 
fused in contact with limestone or other carbonate, 
and a still closer analogy is presented by the fusion 
of silicates in contact with chlorides and oxides, in 
the absence of water. If the composition of the 
Moon is similar to that of the Earth, chlorides of 
sodium, etc., must form an important part of its 
solid crust; they should correspond in quantity to 
the great deposit of such salts that would be left be- 
hind if the ocean of the Earth were evaporated to 
dryness. The only assumptions demanded in apply- 
ing these facts to the explanation of the surface con- 
figuration of the Moon are, 1st, that, our satellite 
resembles its primary in chemical composition; 2d, 
that it has cooled down from a state of fusion; 


20 


LUNAR VOLCANOES. 53 


and 8d, that the magnitude of the eruptions, due to 
such fusion and cooling, must bear some relation to 
the quantity of matter in action. 

The first and second are so commonly made and 
understood, that I need not here repeat the well- 
known arguments upon which they are supported, 
but may remark that the facts above described af- 
ford new and weighty evidence in their favor. 

If the correspondence between the form of a freely 
suspended and rotating drop of liquid and that ofa 
planet or satellite is accepted as evidence of the ex- 
ertion of the same forces of cohesion, etc., on both, 
the correspondence between the configuration of the 
Junar surface, and that of small quantities of fused 
and freely cooled earth-crust matter, should at least 
afford material support to the otherwise-indicated 
inference, that the materials of the Moon’s crust are 
similar to those of the Earth’s, and that they have 
been cooled from a state of fusion. 

I think I may safely generalize to the extent of 
saying, that no considerable mass of fused earthy 
silicates can cool down under circumstances of free 
radiation without first forming a heated solid crust, 
which, by further radiation, cooling, and contrac- 
tion, will assume a surface configuration resembling 
more or less closely that of the Moon. Evidence of 
this is afforded by a survey of the spoil-banks of 
blast furnaces, where thousands of blocks of cinder 
are heaped together, all of which will be found to 
have their upper surfaces (that were freely exposed 
when cooling) corrugated with radiating miniature 
lava streams, that have flowed from one or more 
craters or openings that have been formed in the 
manner above described. The third assumption will, 
I think, be at once admitted, inasmuch as it is but 
the expression of a physical necessity. 

According to this, the Earth, if it has cooled as 
the Moon is supposed to have done, should have dis- 
played corresponding irregularities and generally, 


21 


54 FLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


the magnitude of mountains of solidified planets and 
satellites should be on a scale proportionate to their 
whole mass. In comparing the mountains of the 
Moon and Mercury with those of the Earth, a large 
error is commonly made by taking the customary 
measurements of terrestrial mountain-heights from 
the sea-level. As those portions of the Earth which 
rise above the waters are but its upper mountain 
slopes, and the ocean bottom forms its lower plains 
and valleys, we must add the greatest ocean depths 
to our customary measurements in order to state the 
full height of what remains of the original moun- 
tains of the Earth. As all the stratified rocks have 
been formed by the wearing down of the original 
upper slopes and summits, we cannot expect to be 
able to recognize the original skeleton form of our 
water-washed globe. 

If my calculation of the atmosphere of Mercury is 
correct—viz., that its pressure is equal to about one 
seventh of the Earth’s, or 4} inches of mercury, 
there can be no liquid water on that planet, except- 
ing perhaps over a small amount of circumpolar 
area, and during the extremes of its aphelion winter. 
Thus the irregularities of the terminator, indicating 
m.9untain elevations calculated to reach to st, of the 
diameter of the planet, are quite in accordance with 
the above-stated theoretical considerations. 

Their is one peculiar feature presented by the cones 
of the cooling cinder which is especially interesting. 
The flow of fused cinder from the little crater is at 
first copious and continuous; then it diminishes and 
becomes alternating, by a rising and falling of the 
fused mass within the cone. Ultimately the flow 
ceases, and then the inner liquid sinks, more or less, 
below the level of the orifice. In some cases, where 
much gas is evolved, this sinking is so considerable 
as to leave the cone as a mere hollow shell; the 
inner liquid having settled down and solidified with 
a flat or slightly rounded surface, at about the level 


22 


LUNAR VOLCANOES. 55 


of the base of the cone, or even lower. These hol- 

low cones were remarkably displayed in some of the 

cinder of the Henderson iron, and their formation 

was obviously promoted by the abundant evolution 
gas. 

If such hollow cones were formed by the cooling 
of amass like that of the Moon, they would ulti- 
mately and gradually subside by their own weight. 
But how would they yield? Obviously, by a grad- 
ual hinge-like bending at the base toward the axis 
of the cone. This would occur with or without 
fracture, according to the degree of viscosity of the 
crust and the amount of inclination. But the 
sides of the hollow-cone shell, in falling toward the 
axis, would be crushing into smaller circumferences, 
What would result from this? I think it must be 
the formation of fissures, extending, for the most 
part, radially from the crater toward the base, and 
a crumpling up of the shell of the cone by foldings 
in the same direction. Am I venturing too far in 
suggesting that in this manner may have been formed 
the mysterious rays and rills that extend so abun- 
dantly from several of the lunar craters? 

The upturned edges or walls of the broken crust, 
and the chasms necessarily gaping between them, 
appear to satisfy the peculiar phenomena of reflec- 
tion which these rays present. These edges of the 
fractured crust would lean toward each other, and 
form angular chasms; while the foldings of the 
crust itself would form long concave troughs, extend- 
ing radially from the crater. 

These, when illuminated by rays falling upon 
them in the direction of the line of vision, must 
reflect more light toward the spectator than does the 
general convex lunar surface, and thus they become 
especially visible at the full moon. 

Such foldings and fractures would occur after the 
subsidence and solidification of the lava-forming 
liquid—that is, when the formation of new craters 


23 


56 ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


had ceased in any given region; hence they would 
extend across the minor lateral craters formed by 
outbursts from the sides of the main cone, in the 
manner actually observed. 

The fact that the bottoms of the great walled 
craters of the Moon are generally lower than the 
surrounding plains must not’be forgotten in connec- 
tion with this explanation. 

I will not venture further with the speculations 
suggested by the above described resemblances, as 
my knowledge of the details of the telescopic ap- 
pearances of the Moon is but second-hand. I have 
little doubt, however, that observers who have the 
privilege of direct familiarity with such details will 
find that the phenomona presented by the cooling of 
iron cinder, or other fused silicates, are worthy of 
further and more careful study. 


24 


THE SEASERPENTS OF SCIENCE, 


‘“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your DRED Ev Be 
amlet. 


In the dull season of the year, when there is a de- 
cided lack of interesting or startling events, and 
when newspaper editors are at their wits’ end for 
material, three objects derived from the domain of 
the biologist have been credited with the task of re- 
viving the tide of public interest, and of restoring 
peace and composure to the editorial mind. It need 
hardly be said that the three objects alluded to are: 
‘‘the frog from the solid rock,” ‘‘ the gigantic goose- 
berry’—occasionally supplemented by the discovery 
of ‘‘an egg of marvelous proportions,” and last, 
though by no means least, comes the announcement 
—made as if the being were some eminent tragedian 
returning to the scene of former triumphs—of the 
‘‘reappearance of the great sea-serpent!’ People 
have come in fact to regard the annual advent of the 
‘Great Unknown” as a sure and settled event; and 
doubtless there are many who would confess to a 
feeling of disappointment did the season slip past 
without an announcement of the mysterious stran- 
ger’s Visit. 

Notwithstanding the interest which the discussion 
of the sea-serpent question inevitably evokes, there 
are comparatively few persons to be found who regard 
the question from other than a purely sceptical point 
of view. ‘The intelligence that the sea-serpent ‘‘ has 


2) THE EHLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


been seen again” is usually reckoned as equivalent 
to the statement that some grog-laden mariner has 
been exhibiting that phenomenon known to physi- 
ologists as ‘‘ unconscious cerebration,” or that some 
observer has been interpreting an unusual appearance 
in the sea by the light of the serpentine myth. Oc- 
casionally the subject affords an opportunity for the 
display of the anything but scientific use of the 
imagination of some feeble jokers, who succeed in 
imposing upon the credulity of editors, and in seeing 
their absurd descriptions of fictitious animals in all 
the prominence of large type. I have before me at 
the present time a most circumstantial account of the 
‘‘capture of the sea-serpent at Oban,” in which the 
animal is described as having been attacked by a file 
of volunteers armed with rifles, and by a perfect flo- 
tilla of yachts and boats. The animal was, according 
to this account, happily delivered over to the tender 
mercies of the native talent. After causing stones 
to fly in showers by the sweep of its tail as it lay on 
the beach, it was secured, and a list of zoological 
characters, such as belong to no one known animal, is 
duly given. It can hardly be deemed astonishing that 
a non-scientific London entrepreneur, on reading the 
account of the monster’s capture, at once telegraphed 
to secure it forexhibition. History, it need scarcely 
be said, does not record the sayings of this gentleman 
on learning that, as one of the credulous public, he 
had been duly hoaxed. 

The literature of the subject is in one sense a huge 
record of mistakes and errors in observation, and the 
ordinary public, as wellas the scientific world, have 
long been accustomed to accept the erroneous side 
as representative of the entire subject, and as if no 
element or substratum of probability and fact was 
included in the whole matter. Thus, for example, 
because on one occasion an alleged sea-serpent on 
closer investigation was proved to consist of a long 
train or tail of sea-weed, with some heterogeneous 
material serving for the head—or since, on other oc. 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 8 


casions, forms described as being of serpentine size 
have resolved themselves into shoals of porpoises 
swimming in line—readers of such detached state- 
ments are apt to rush to the settled conclusion that 
. all sea-serpent tales are explicable on some analogous 
footing. The relegation of the subject to the sphere 
of fable is therefore to be accounted a perfectly 
natural result of the almost invariable construction 
put upon a few ill-founded tales and medieval myths 
—to be presently alluded to—and also of the indiffer- 
ence with which zoologists themselves have treated 
the subject; while ignorance of the existence of a 
great body of perfectly reliable evidence supporting 
the view that large serpentine forms have been seen, 
together with a common incompetence to weigh evi- 
dence and to decide upon the merits of the case, may 
_ also be cited as two important factors in inducing a 
general disbelief in the personality of the modern 
Leviathan. 

Of the older chroniclers of sea-serpent lore, perhaps 
the most noteworthy is Olaus Magnus, the worthy 
archbishop of Upsala, who devotes a whole chapter 
in the course of his writings to the sea-serpent, and 
discourses most volubly upon the marine snake, and 
other monsters of the deep, such as krakens, whales, 
and the like. Speaking of some sea monsters, the 
exact nature of which it is zoologically impossible to 
define, Magnus writes that ‘‘ their forms are horrible, 
their heads square, all set with prickles, and they 
have sharp and long horns about, like a tree rooted 
up by the roots. They areten or twelve cubits long, 
very black, and with huge eyes, the compass whereof 
is about eight or ten cubits. The apple of the eye is 
of one cubit, and is red and fiery colored, which in 
the dark night appears to fishermen afar off under 
waters as a burning fire, having hairs like goose 
feathers, thick and long, like a beard hanging down. 
The rest of the body, for the greatness of the head, 
which is square, is very small, not being above 14 or 
15 cubits long. One of these sea monsters will easily 


4 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


drown many great ships, provided with many strong 
mariners.” 

The sea-serpent of this writer appears to have been 
a terrible animal, worthy of a place in the records of 
those knightly encounters with strange beasts which — 
mark our earlier literature. The marine snake of 
Magnus was 200 feet long, twenty feet thick, and 
appeared ‘‘ like a pillar’ when he elevated his head 
in mid-air. His hair was a cubit long, his scales 
were sharp and his skin black; and his eyes were 
like flaming fire. The appearances of such monsters 
were naturally regarded in the light of grave por- 
tents of coming disasters. One old writer, relating 
the capture of a marine monster, says that ‘‘in 1282, 
there was a fish taken in the sea, in all respects like 
unto a lyon.” The fishermen reported that ‘‘the 
fishe gave many frightfull scrikes and cries when it 
was taken, and at this time,” continues the narrative, 
‘‘there fell a great discord between the Englishmen 
that were students in Paris and those of Pycardy that 
studyed there likewise. Their division was so terri- 
ble that it could hardly be appeased.” Starting thus 
with a basis of myth, it is little to be wondered at 
that modern ideas have continued to invest the ‘‘ sea- 
serpent” and its kind with an atmosphere of the ri- 
diculous. 

The simple and attentive consideration of the mat- 
ter, however, reveals certain aspects and features, in 
virtue of which it can hardly be dismissed from the 
sphere either of popular or of scientific thought, and 
which commend the subject to the intelligent mind, 
as a study of both a curious and highly interesting 
kind. Can we, for example, after perusing the mass 
of evidence accumulated during past years, dismiss 
the subject s¢mpliciter, as founded on no basis of fact? 
The answer to such a question must be an emphatic 
negative; since the evidence brought before our no- 
tice includes the testimony of several hundreds of 
sane and reasonable persons, who in frequent cases 
have testified on oath and by affidavit to the truth of 


THE SEA-SERPENTS OF SOIENCE. 5 


their descriptions of curious marine forms, seen and 
observed in various seas. The second supposition, 
that all of these persons have simply been deceived, 
is one which must also be dismissed. For, after 
making all due allowance for exaggeration, and for 
variations in accounts arising from different modes 
of expression and even from mental peculiarities in 
the witnesses, there remains asolid body of testimony, 
which, unless there is some special tendency to men- 
dacity on the part of persons who travel by sea, we 
are bound, by all the rules of fair criticism, and of 
evidence, to receive as testimony of honest kind. 
AsI have elsewhere observed, ‘‘ There are very many 
calmly and circumstantially related and duly verified 
accounts of serpentine, or, at any rate, of anomalous 
marine forms, having been closely inspected by the 
crews and passengers of vessels. Lither, therefore, 
we must argue that in every instance the sense of in- 
telligent men and women must have played them 
false, or we must simply assume that they are de- 
scribing what they have never seen. The accounts 
in many instances so minutely describe the appear- 
ance of such forms, inspected from a near standpoint, 
that the possibility of their being mistaken for inani- 
mate objects, as they might be if viewed from a dis- 
t-nee, is rendered entirely improbable. We may 

ius, then, affirm firstly that there are many verified 
‘eces of evidence on record, of strange marine 

rms having been met with—which evidences, 
judged according to ordinary and common-sense 
rules, go to prove that certain hitherto undescribed 
marine organisms do certainly exist in the sea- 
depth.” 

The first issue I must therefore submit to the 
reader, as representing one of a large and impartial 
jury, is, that the mass of evidence accumulated on 
the sea-serpent question, when weighed and tested, 
even in a prima facie manner, plainly shuts us up to 
the belief that appearances, resembling those pro- 
duced by the presence in the sea of huge serpentine 


6 THE HLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


forms, have been frequently noted by competent and 
trustworthy observers. Unless we are to believe that 
men and women have deliberately prevaricated, and 
that without the slightest excuse or show of reason, 
we must believe that they have witnessed marine 
appearances, certainly of unwonted and unusual kind. 
That ‘‘ something” has assuredly been seen, must be 
the verdict on this first issue. What that ‘‘ some- 
thing” is or was, and whether or not the evidence 
will support the opinion that the appearances de- 
scribed bear out the existence of a ‘‘sea-serpent” in 
the flesh, form points for discussion in the next in- 
stance. 

In the consideration of this second issue, two chief 
aspects are presented. We have thus, firstly, to as- 
sure ourselves that the evidence, the character of ° 
which has just been discussed, will support the as- 
sertion that the appearances noted were produced by 
living organisms. And provided this point be de- 
cided in the affirmative, we must assure ourselves, in 
the second place, of the probable kind and nature of 
these beings. 

Allusion has already been made to erroneous ob- 
servations, which have subjected the stories of sea- 
serpents to almost universal ridicule, and in which 
various /ifeless objects were at first credited with the 
representation of the marine monster. That along 
and connected string of seaweed, extending for some 
fifty or sixty feet along the surface of a sea, slightly 
disturbed by a rippling breeze, may be moved by the 
waves in amanner strongly suggestive of the move- 
ments of a snake in swimming, is a statement to the 
correctness of which I can bear personal testimony, 
and to the truth of which even observant sea-side 
visitors may testify. The movements of an unusu- 
ally long frond or group of fronds of tangle, attached 
to a rock, and set in motion at low water, by a light 
swell, has before now, and when seen indistinctly, 
suggested the idea of the existence at the spot of 
some large denizen of the sea, browsing on the sea- 


THE SHA-SHRPENTS OF SCIENCHK. %% 


weeds, with the fore part of its body, represented by 
the tangle fronds, occasionally appearing at the sur- 
face of the water. Floating trunks and roots of 
trees, serving as a nucleus around which sea-weed 
has collected, and to which barnacles and sea-acorns 
—producing a variegated effect by reason of their 
light color—have attached themselves in great num- 
bers, have also presented appearances closely resem- 
bling those of large marine animals swimming slowly 
along at the surface of the water. In one instance of 
this latter kind, related to me by a friend who was an 
actual spectator, the floating piece of timber assumed 
a shape imitating in the closest and most remarkable 
manner the head of some reptile—by the same rule, 
I suppose, that in the gnarled trunks and branches of 
trees one may frequently discern likenesses to the 
human face and to the forms of other living things. 
In this latter instance, the floating object was per- 
ceived at some miles’ distance from the deck of a 
yacht; and even when seen through a telescope, and 
carefully scrutinized by men accustomed to make out 
the contour and nature of objects at sea, the resem- 
blance to the head of some animal was so close that the 
course of the vessel was changed and the object in 
due time overhauled. This latter, therefore, presents 
an example of a case, the details of which, when re- 
lated, tempt people to maintain, without further par- 
ley, that sea-serpents always resolve themselves into 
inanimate objects of one kind or another. And so 
great in some minds is the fear of popular ridicule 
regarding this subject, that one ship-captain related 
that when a sea-serpent had been seen by his crew 
from the deck of the vessel, he remained below; 
since, to use his own words, ‘‘ had I said I had seen 
the sea-serpent, I should have been considered to be 
a warranted liar all my life after.” 

But the natural supposition and remark of the in- 
animate nature of objects seen at sea is at once noted 
to be anything but universal in its nature and appli- 
cation, when the records of sea-serpent history are 


° THE ELZEVIR «LBRARY, 


examined in detail. Numerous cases exist in which 
the object, presumed to be a living being, has been 
scrutinized so closely that, save on the supposition 
that senses have played their owners false, or that 
minds have given way to an unaccountable impulse 
for lying, we must face and own the belief that liv- 
ing animals have been seen. Let us briefly examine 
one or two of the accounts of this kind which have 
been duly and faithfully recorded, with a view of 
ascertaining whether or not we may detect any in- 
herent or implied elements of improbability, and 
whether the evidence as to living things having been 
seen is of trustworthy kind. 

One of the most circumstantially recorded and 
best-known reports of the appearance of a sea-ser- 
pent is that of Captain M‘Quhe, who commanded 
H.M.S. Dedalus in 1848, and whose case, origin- 
ally published and commented upon in the Times of 
that year, may be almost unknown to the present and 
rising generation of readers. The first announce- 
ment in the Z?mes appeared in the form cf a para- 
graph on October 9th, 1848, stating that when the 
Dedalus was on her passage home from the East In- 
dies, and when between the Cape of Good Hope and 
St. Helena, the captain and most of the officers and 
crew saw an animal which from its form and shape 
they assumed to be a sea-serpent. Captain M‘Quhe’s 
own statement, contained in his reply to an official 
inquiry from the Admiralty, gives the date of the 
marine monster’s appearance as 6th August, 1848, 
and its exact habitat, at 5 p.m. of that day, as latitude 
24° 44'S. and longitude 9° 22’ E. The captain sim- 
ply states it to be ‘‘an enormous serpent, with head 
and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above 
the surface of the sea, and, as nearly as we could 
approximate by comparing it with the length of what 
our maintop-sail yard would show in the water, there 
was at the very least sixty feet of the animal @ fleur 
d'eau, no portion of which was, to our perception, 
used in propelling it through the water, either by 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 9 


vertical or horizontal undulation.” The animal, 
Captain M‘Quhe states,—and the observation is im- 
portant, as bearing on the question of the living na- 
ture of the object described,—passed the ship ‘rap- 
idly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it 
been a man of my acquaintance I should easily have 
recognized his features with the naked eye.” The 
further dimensions of the animal are given as 15 or 
16 inches in diameter ‘‘ behind the head, which was,” 
continues Captain M‘Quhe, ‘‘without any doubt, 
that of a snake,” while the color is described as being 
‘‘a dark brown, with yellowish white about the 
throat.” No fins were visible, but it appeared to 
posess ‘‘ something like the mane of a horse, or rather 
(like ?) a bunch of sea-weed, washed aboutits back.” 
Lieutenant Drummond, of the Dedalus, who was 
officer of the watch on the memorable occasion, 
states in his report that the animal had a “‘ back fin,” 
which was ‘‘ perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the 
head.” This fin evidently corresponds to the struc- 
ture described in the captain’s report as ‘‘ something 
like the mane of a horse,” and which the introduction 
of the word ‘‘like” (as I have inserted it in paren- 
theses after the word ‘‘ rather” in his description) 
serves to correlate with the ‘‘ bunch of sea-weed”’ 
which ‘‘ washed about its back.” 

So far as an exact and circumstantial description, 
attested by the narrative of other witnesses, can tes- 
tify to the actual nature of an object, viewed, it must 
be remarked, by educated and observant men, the 
instance just given would appear to admit of not the 
slightest doubt that a truly living and actively mov- 
ing animal was observed, and also that its appearance 
was decidedly serpentine. It is noteworthy that in 
the whole course of the discussion which followed 
upon the publication of Captain M‘Quhe’s observa- 
tion, no one was found even to suggest that the ap- 
pearance was other than that of a living animal; al- 
though, as will afterwards be remarked, opinions 
varied greatly as to the nature of the being which 


10 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


thus afforded so tantalizing and insufficient a glimpse 
of its structure and identity. 

Passing over many interesting reports of sea-ser- 
pents’ appearances now of some years’ date, I find in 
the daily newspapers, almost of the date at which 
these words are penned, statements, both made on 
oath and before legal authorities, regarding the 
‘‘great unknown.” ‘The first of these statements I 
shall give in the words of the newspaper reports, 
which present a clear, unvarnished statement of the 
narrative, and of the circumstances in which it was 
offered for public investigation. 

‘‘The story of the mate and crew of the barque 
Pauline, of London, said to have arrived in port from 
a twenty months’ voyage to Akyab—about having 
seen ‘a sea-serpent’ while on a voyage in the Indian 
seas, was declared to on oath before Mr. Raffles, the 
stipendiary magistrate, at the Liverpool Police Court. 
The affidavit was made in consequence of the doubt- 
fulness with which anything about the ‘ sea-serpent’ 
has hitherto been received; and to show the genuine 
character of the story it has been placed judicially 
on record. The following is a copy ofthe declara- 
tion, which will be regarded as unprecedented in its . 
way: 


BorovuGH oF LIVERPOOL, IN THE COUNTY PALATINE OF LANCAS- 
TER, TO WIT. 


We, the undersigned, captain, officers, and crew of the bark 
Pauline (of London), of Liverpool, in the county of Lancas- 
ter, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, do 
solemnly and sincerely declare that on July 8, 1875, in lat. 5° 
13’ S., long. 35° W., we observed three large sperm whales, 
and one of them was gripped round the body with two turns 
of what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and tail 
appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about thirty 
feet, and its girth eight or nine feet. The serpent whirled its 
victim round and round for about fifteen minutes, and then 
suddenly dragged the whale to the bottom, head first. 

GrorGE Drevar, Master. 
Horatio THOMPSON. 

JOHN HENDERSON LANDELLS, 
OWEN BAKER. 

Wm. LEWARN. 


THE SEA-SHERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 11 


Again, on July 13,a similar: serpent was seen about two 
hundred yards off, shooting itself along the surface, the head 
and nec: being out of the water several feet. This was seen 
only by the captain and one ordinary seaman, whose signa- 
tures are affixed. 

GrorGE Drevar, Master. 
OwEN BAKER. 


A few moments after it was seen elevated some sixty feet 
erpendicularly in the air, by the chief officer and the follow- 
ing able seamen, whose signatures are also afiixed. 
Horatio THOMPSON, 
WILLIAM LEWARN. 
OWEN BAKER. 


And we make this solemn declaration conscientiously, be- 
lieving the same to be true, and by virtue of the provisions 
of an act made and passed in the sixth year of the reign of 
his late Majesty, entitled ‘An Act to repeal an Act of the 
present Session of Parliament, entitled an Act for the more 
effectual abolition of oaths and affirmations, taken and made 
in various departments of the State, and to substitute decla- 
rations in lieu thereof, and for‘the more entire suppression of 
voluntary and extra-judicial oaths and affidavits, and to 
make other provisions for the abolition of unnecessary 
oaths.’ Severally declared and subscribed at Liverpool 
aforesaid the tenth day of January, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and seventy-seven. 

GEORGE DreEvar, Master. 
WILLIAM LEwarRn, Steward. 
Horatio THOMPSON, Chicf Officer. 
J. H. LANDELLS, Second Officer. 
OWEN BAKER. 


Severally declared and subscribed at Liverpool afore- 
said, the tenth day of January, one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-seven, before T. 8. Rafiles, J. 
P. for Liverpool.” 

The second and final piece of evidence I shall cite 
is that obtained from an article entitled ‘‘ Strange 
Sea-Monsters,” by Mr. R. A. Proctor, which appeared 
in the Hecho of the 15th January, 1877. In this com- 
munication Mr. Proctor makes reference to some of 
the views which I have promulgated on this sub- 
ject, and by way of illustration gives the following 
interesting particulars of a recent sea-serpent narra- 
tive: 


12 THH ELZHVIR LIBRARY. 


“Soon after the British steamship Nestor anchored 
at Shanghai, last October, John K. Webster, the 
captain, and James Anderson, the ship’s surgeon, 
appeared before Mr. Donald Spence, Acting Law 
Secretary in the British Supreme Court, and made 
affidavit to the following effect: 


On September 11, at 10.30 a.m., fifteen miles north-west of 
North Sand Lighthouse, in the Malacca Straits, the weather 
being fine and the sea smooth, the captain saw an object 
which had been pointed out by the third officer as ‘a shoal!’ 
Surprised at finding a shoal in such a well-known track, I 
watched the object, and found that it was in motion, keep- 
ing up the same speed with the ship, and retaining about the 
same distance as first seen. The shape of the creature I 
would compare to that of a gigantic frog. The head, ofa 
pale yellowish color, was about twenty feet in length, and 
six feet of the crown were above the water. I tried in vain to 
make out the eyes and mouth; the mouth may, however, 
have been below water. The head was immediately con- 
nected with the body, without any indication of aneck. The 
body was about forty-five or fifty feet long, and of an oval 
shape,perfectly smooth,but there may have been a light ridge 
along the spine. The back rose some five feet above the sur- 
face. An immense tail, fully one hundred and fifty feet in 
length, rose a fewinches above the water. This tail I saw 
distinctly from its junction with the body to its extremity; it 
seemed cylindrical, with a very slight taper, and I estimate 
its diameter at four feet. The body and tail were marked 
with alternate bands of stripes, black and pale yellew in 
color. The stripes were distinct to the very extremity of the 
tail. I cannot say whether the tail terminated in a fin or not. 
The creature possessed no fins or paddles so far as we could 
perceive. Icannot sayif it had legs. It appeared to pro- 
gress by means of an undulatory motion of the tail in a ver- 
tical plane (that is, up and down). 


Mr. Anderson, the surgeon, confirmed the captain’s 
account in all essential respects. He regarded the 
creature aS an enormous marine salamander. ‘It 
was apparently of a gelatinous (that is, flabby) sub- 
stance. Though keeping up with us, at the rate of 
nearly ten knots an hour, its movements seemed 
lethargic. I saw no eyes or fins, and am certain 
that the creature did not blow or spout in the man- 
ner of a whale. I should not compare it for a mo- 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 18 


ment to a snake. The only creatures it could be 
compared with are the newt or frog tribe.’ ” * 

Placing these two latter narratives side by side 
with that of Captain M‘Quhe, we may firstly remark 
the singular coincidence that in all three narratives 
mention is made of the head of the animal being 
elevated above water—this feature in the animal’s 
mode of progression having evidently struck the ob- 
servers as a noticeable point; while the coincidence, 
viewed as a piece of internal evidenee, speaks 
strongly in favor of the implied truthfulness of the 
narratives. I think one may fairly assume that the 
supposition that the parties concerned were deceived 
into mistaking a lifeless for a living object, cannot 
for a moment be reasonably entertained. Laying 
aside for the present all questions as to the zoologi- 
cal position and rank of the animal, we may take it 
for granted, as based on evidence of reasonable kind, 
that the ‘‘ something” seen in each of these cases— 
which, be it remarked, are but types of many other - 
authenticated records of similar kind—was an active 
living animal. And we may also affirm that, from 
the circumstances in which the statements were 
made, as well as from the character of our witnesses, 
from their evident desire and from the trouble taken 
by them to place on record a faithful account of 
what they had seen, we have ample evidence to 
prove that part of our second issue which dealt with 
the question of the living or lifeless nature of the 
objects seen. If internal evidence is to be trusted at 
all, the present case strongly exemplifies its worth 
and value. 

We have, however, still to deal with a point in our 


* It is just possible that the ‘‘ flabby” or “ gelatinous” crea- 
ture mentioned in this narrative was a giant cuttle-fish, 
whose manner of swimming, color, absence of limbs, etc., 
would correspond with the details of the narrative. The 

‘immense tail’? might be the enormous arms of such a crea- 
ture trailing behind the body as it swam backward, propelled 
by jets of water from the breathing ‘‘ funnel.” 


14 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


second proposition, which brings us within the scope 
of truly scientific inquiry—namely, that devoted to 
the consideration of the kind or nature of the animals 
observed by narrators of sea-serpent tales. In the 
elucidation of this topic we may incidentally dis- 
cover implied proofs of the correctness and truth of 
the narratives on which the history of the sea-serpent 
is literally founded. ‘The discussion of the question 
from a zoological point of view may be fitly prefaced 
by an allusion to certain readily-explained cases of 
serpentine appearances caused by well-known and 
common forms of marine life assuming peculiar atti- 
tudes in the water, and of being indistinctly seen by 
observers. The instance already alluded to, of a 
shoal of porpoises swimming in line, with their backs 
and dorsal fins appearing now and then, with a kind 
of regular alternating motion, above the surface of 
the water, presents an example of a deceptive appear- 
ance brought about by a somewhat unusual habit of 
‘familiar animals. I well remember being struck 
with surprise at an unwonted spectacle I beheld in 
the Frith of Forth some years ago, of an apparently 
long animal swimming rapidly through the water, 
and showing several widely-detached black fins. 
Being alone in a small skiff at the time, I confess to 
the feeling of caution prompting me to restrain my 
curiosity and to remain at a safe distance from the 
animal. My curiosity was, however, speedily dis- 
pelled by beholding the apparently long and single 
animal resolve itself into a few sun-fishes (Orthago- 
riscus), which happened to be rolling over and over 
in the water in line; their motions, viewed from a 
distance, together with the imperfect glimpse I had 
at first caught of the animals, rendering my former 
idea of the presence of an elongated moving body all 
the more realistic. Such cases are, however, not to 
be placed side by side with the plain accounts of 
unknown animals of large size having been distinctly 
seen in latitudes favoring the growth of animals 
with which we are less familiar, and to the explana- 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 15 


tion of the affirmed and verified accounts of which 
we may next direct attention. 

As was naturally to be expected, zoologists began 
to overhaul their lists on the narration of these tales, 
with the view of attempting to discover some known 
form which would correspond with the details and 
appearances observed and described in the sea-serpent 
accounts. Could the zoologist point with reason to 
any single form or to a few animals which might, 
without any undue liberties being taken either with 
the animals themselves or with the sea-serpent tales, 
be regarded as the representatives of the marine mon- 
sters? Such was the question propounded for the 
solution of naturalists in former years, and such em- 
phatically is the chief question for consideration in 
the subject as it at present stands. 

The only group of animals to which our attention 
may be specially directed with the view of finding a 
zoological solution of the problem, is that of the 
Vertebrata—the highest group of animals, which pos- 
sesses the fishes as its lowest, and man and quadru- 
peds as its highest representatives. Laying aside the 
class of birds, as including no forms at all allied to 
our present inquiry, we are left with, speaking gen- 
erally, three groups of animals, from the ranks of 
which various forms may be selected to aid us in 
solving the sea-serpent mystery. These three groups 
are the fishes, reptiles, and mammalia, and it may be 
shown that from each of these classes, but more nota- 
bly from among the fishes and reptiles, various ani- 
mals, corresponding more or less closely with the 
descriptions given of strange marine monsters, may 
be obtained. An important consideration, however, 
must not be overlooked at this stage, namely, that 
too frequently the attempt to reconcile the sea-ser- 
pent with some known animal of serpentine form 
and nature, has limited the perceptions and foiled 
the labors of naturalists. Starting with the fixed 
idea that the unknown form must be a serpent, and 
not widening their thoughts to admit of the term 


16 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


‘‘serpentine” being extended to groups of animals 
other than the reptilia, naturalists soon exhausted 
the scientific aspect of the subject, and the zoologi 
cal solution of the problem was almost at once given 
up. Then, also, as far as I have been able to ascer- 
tain, zoologists and other writers on this subject have 
never made allowance for the abnormal and huge de- 
velopment of ordinary marine animals. My own con- 
victions on this matter find in these two considera- 
tions, but especially in the last idea, the most reason- 
able and likely explanation of the personality of the 
sea-serpent, and also the reconciliation of such dis- 
crepancies as the various narrations may be shown to 
evince. If we thus fail to find in the ranks of ordi- 
nary animal life, or among the reptiles themselves, 
the representatives of the ‘‘sea-serpents,” I think we 
may nevertheless build up a most reasonable case 
both for their existence and for the explanation of 
their true nature, by taking into account the facts, 
that the term ‘‘ sea-serpent,” as ordinarily employed, 
must be extended to include other forms of Verte- 
brate animals which possess elongated bodies; and 
that cases of the abnormally large development of 
ordinary serpents and of serpent-like animals will 
reasonably account for the occurrence of the animals 
collectively named sea-serpents. 

The case related by Captain M‘Quhe formed, as 
has been remarked, subject-matter for much discus- 
sion. As Mr. Gosse records in his charming work, 
‘“‘The Romance of Natural History,” the various 
suggestions thrown out regarding the nature of the 
‘“serpent” seen by the crew of the Deedalus, included 
and advocated its correspondence with a gigantic 
seal—this idea emanating from Professor Owen; with 
a Plesiosaurus—an extinct reptile, which possessed 
a very long swan-like neck, and which attained a 
usual length varying from eighteen to twenty or 
more feet; with other and allied forms of extinct 
reptilia; and with a large species of shark, the bask- 
ing shark (Selache maaima). The idea of Professor 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 17 


Owen does not in the least correspond with Captain 
M‘Quhe’s circumstantial account of the appearance; 
and to Owen’s views the captain contributed a cour- 
teous but firm reply, refusing absolutely to admit 
that his description was susceptible of such modifi- 
cation as would bring Professor Owen’s idea of a 
gigantic seal and the serpent of the Dedalus into 
close correspondence. Mr. Gosse and others support 
the suggestion that the animal seen on this occasion 
was a kind of Plestosaurus. And this idea received 
apparent support from the fact recorded by Captain 
M‘Quhe that no motion was observed in the portion 
of the animal above water; it being thus concluded 
that the movements were produced by limbs existing 
in the form of swimming paddles, such as the Plesdo- 
saurt possessed, and which would in their natural 
position be concealed below the surface of the water. 
The suggestion of a huge shark is simply untenable 
from the utter want of correspondence between any 
feature of the shark’s conformation and the account 
of Captain M‘Quhe. 

The idea that the animal observed in this instance 
was a huge serpent seems to have been simply slurred 
over without that due attention which this hypothe- 
sis undoubtedly merits. While to my mind the 
only feasible explanation of the narrative of the crew 
of the Pauline must be founded on the idea that the 
animals observed by them were gigantic snakes. 
The habits of the animals in attacking the whales 
evidently point to a close correspondence with those 
of terrestrial serpents of large size, such as the boas 
and pythons; while the fact of the animal being de- 
scribed in the various narratives as swimming with 
the head out of water, would seem to indicate that, 
like all reptiles, they were air-breathers, and required 
to come more or less frequently to the surface for the 
purpose of respiration. The difficulties which ap- 
pear to stand in the way of reconciling the sea-ser- 
pent with a marine snake, in this or in other cases, 
are two in number. The great majority of intelli- 


18 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


gent persons are unaware of the existence of serpents 
of truly and exclusively marine habits; and thus the 
mere existence of such snakes constitutes an appar- 
ent difficulty, which, however, a slight acquaintance 
with the history of the reptilia would serve at once 
to remove. Mr. Gosse speaks of these marine snakes 
—the Hydrophide of the naturalist—which inhabit 
the warmer seas, possess compressed fin-like tails 
adapted for swimming, and are frequentiy met with 
far out at sea.* While, as regards the claims of the 
‘‘sea-serpent” to belong to the true serpent order, 
naturalists have dismissed this idea, simply because 
it has never occurred to them that a gigantic develop- 
ment of an ordinary species of sea-snake would fully 
correspond with most of the appearances described, 
and would in the most natural manner explain many 
of the sea-serpent tales. Suppose that a sea-snake 
of gigantic size is carried out of its ordinary latitude, 
and allow for slight variations or inaccuracies in the 
accounts given by Captain M‘Quhe, and I think we 
have in these ideas the nearest possible approach to 
a reasonable solution of this interesting problem. 

It will be asked how I account for the apparent 
absence of motion in the fore part of the body, and 
for the existence of a dorsal or back fin. inka 
suggest, in reply, that the simple movements of the 
laterally compressed tail, altogether concealed be- 


* It is interesting to note that frequent mention of the oc- 
currence of large ‘‘ sea-serpents’’ is made by the crews of 
vessels which have sailed through the Indian Ocean. An in- 
stance of a large sea-snake being seen in its native seas is 
afforded by the report of the master of thé bark Georgina 
from Rangoon, which (as reported in the newspapers of 
September 4th, 1877) put into Falmouth for orders on the 
1st September. On May 2ist, 1877, in latitude 2° N. and 
longitude 90° 53’ E., a large serpent about forty or fifty feet 
long, gray and yellow in color, and ten or eleven inches 
thick, was seen by the crew. It was visible for twenty 
minutes, during which time it crossed the bow, and ulti- 
mately disappeared under the port-quarter. There can be 
little doubt that this sea-serpent was simply a largely de- 
veloped marine snake, 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 19 


neath the surface, would serve to propel the animal 
forward without causing the front portion of the 
body to exhibit any great or apparent motion; while 
the appearance of a fin may possibly be explained 
on the presumption that seaweed may have become 
attached to the animal, or that the upper ridge of the 
vertically compressed tail extended far forward and 
appeared as a fin-like structure. 

The most important feature in my theory, how- 
ever, in which I may be desired to lead evidence, 
and that which really constitutes the strong point of 
this explanation, is the propability of the develop- 
ment to a huge or gigantic size of ordinary marine 
serpents. This point is one in support of which 
zoology and physiology will offer strong and favor- 
able testimony. There is no single fact, so far as I 
am aware, which militates in the slightest degree 
against the supposition that giant members of the 
sea-serpents may be occasionally developed. The 
laws which regulate human growth and structure, 
and in virtue of which veritable ‘‘sons of Anak,” like 
Chang the Chinese giant, and the Russian giant, 
differing widely in proportions from their fellow 
mortals, are developed, must be admitted to hold 
good for the entire animal kingdom. ‘There is, in 
fact, no valid reason against the supposition that a 
giant serpent is occasionally produced, just as we 
familiarly observe almost every kind of animal to 
produce now and then a member of the race which 
mightily exceeds the proportions of its neighbors. 
But clearer still does our case become when we con- 
sider that we have proof of the most absolute and 
direct kind of the giant development of such forms 
as cuttle-fishes, which have thus appeared as if in 
realization of Victor Hugo’s ‘‘devil-fish,” which 
plays so important a part in that strange, weird tale, 
the ‘‘Toilers of the Sea.” The huge polypus of 
Pliny ; the kraken of Bishop Pontoppidan, which 
that learned Churchman described as ‘‘ similior in- 
sule quam bestie;” the ‘‘poulpe” of De Montfort 


90 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


which was large enough to swallow a three-decker; 
and lastly Victor Hugo’s cephalopodous creation, 
were deemed, not so very long ago, to belong en- 
tirely to the domain of myth and fancy. A few 
fragments of cuttle-fishes of large size had been now 
and then cast up on various coasts, it is true, but 
these instances were not regarded as at all sufficient 
to establish the existence of giant members of the 
group. At the present time, however, we are in 
full possession of the details of several undoubted 
cases of the occurrence of cuttle-fishes of literally 
gigantic proportions—developed, in fact, to an ex- 
tent justly comparable to that of the supposed 
‘‘ sea-serpent,” when the latter is compared with its 
ordinary representatives of the tropical oceans. 
Other giants of the cuttle-fish race are known to 
science, and no residuum of doubt now remains in 
the minds of naturalists regarding the existence of 
prototypes of Victor Hugo’s ‘‘devil-fish.” Many 
zoologists might hesitate greatly before assigning 
these monsters to new genera or species, and would 
simply regard them as giant developments of ordi- 
nary and already known cuttle-fish forms. Is there 
anything more improbable, I ask, in the idea of a 
gigantic development of an ordinary marine snake 
into a veritable giant of its race—or, for that matter, 
in the existence of distinct species of monster sea- 
serpents—than in the production of huge cuttle- 
fishes, which, until within the past few years, re- 
mained unknown to the foremost pioneers of science! 
In the idea of gigantic developments of snakes or 
snake-like animals, be they fishes or reptiles, I hold 
we have at least a feasible and rational explanation 
of the primary fact of the actual existence of such 
organisms. 

The difference regarding details of appearance and 
structure described in the sea-serpent tales, leads us 
next, and lastly, to point out certain considerations 
which may serve to explain away some of the diffi- 
culties which beset the question. That many of the 


THE SHA-SHERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 921 


nppearances described may have been produced b 
animals other than true serpents cannot be doubted. 
It therefore constitutes an important part of our task 
to indicate the probabilities of various other animal 
forms ‘‘ doing duty,” so to speak, for sea-serpents on 
some occasions. 

Amongst the fishes we may find not a few ex- 
amples of snake-like animals, which, admitting the 
fact of the occurrence of gigantic developments, may 
be supposed to mimic very closely the appearance 
of marine serpents. Any one who has watched the 
movements of a large conger-eel, for example, in any 
of our great aquaria, must have remarked not only 
its serpentine form, but also the peculiar gliding 
motion, which seems frequently to be produced in- 
dependently of the active movements of the tail or 
pectoral fin. Ido not doubt, however, that a giant 
ee] might by most persons be readily enough referred 
to its proper place in the animal sphere, although, 
when viewed from some distance, and seen in an 
imperfect and indistinct manner, the spectators—all 
unprepared to think of an eel being so largely de- 
veloped—might report the appearance as that of a 
marine snake. 

A visit paid to the Newcastle Museum of Natural 
History, on which occasion I had the pleasure of in- 
specting a dried and preserved ribbon or tape-fish of 
large size, forcibly confirmed an idea that such an 
animal, developed to a gigantic size, and beheld from 
a distance by persons unskilled in natural history— 
and who would, therefore, hardly dream of associ- 
ating the elongated being before them with their or- 
dinary ideas of fish-form and appearance—might ac- 
count for certain of the tales of sea-serpents which 
have been brought under our notice. I had been 
specially struck with the mention, in several accounts 
of sea-serpents, of a very long back fin, sometimes 
termed a ‘‘mane,” and of a banded body covered 
with tolerably smooth skin; whilst in several instances 
the description given of the heads of the sea-monsters 


99 THE BLZEVIR LIBRARY. 


closely corresponded with the appearance of the head 
of the tape-fishes. These fishes have further been 
described by naturalists as occasionally having been 
seen swimming with an undulating or serpentine 
motion close to the surface of the water, the head 
being somewhat elevated above the surface—this lat- 
ter feature, as we have observed, forming a remark 
of frequent occurrence in sea-serpent tales. I found, 
on making inquiry into the history of these fishes, 
that their serpentine form had struck previous ob- 
servers, but, as far asI could ascertain, their merits as 
representatives of sea-serpents had never before been 
so persistently advocated. 

These views and the dimensions of the specimen 
at Newcastle I communicated to the Scotsman and 
Courant newspapers in June, 1876. The measure- 
ments of the ribbon-fish at Newcastle are given as 12 
feet 3 inches in length, the greatest depth being 114 
inches, and greatest thickness only 2% inches; the 
small dimensions in thickness, and the relatively long 
length and depth, giving to these fishes the popular 
names of ribbon and tape-fishes. The species was 
the well-known Gymnetrus or Regalecus Banksii of 
naturalists; and by the museum-attendant at New- 
castle I was informed that a still larger specimen of 
the same species was recently obtained off the Nor- 
thumberland coast, the length of this latter being 134 
feet, the depth 15 inches, and the thickness 5 inches. 
These fishes possess a greatly compressed body. 
The breast fins are very small, and the ventral or 
belly fins are elongated and spine-like. The first 
rays of the dorsal or back fin are very long, whilst 
the fin itself extends the whole length of the back, 
and attains an average breadth of about three inches. 

Curiously enough, the publication of these views 
regarding the ribbon-fishes drew forth from the head 
of a well-known firm of fish merchants in Edinburgh 
a remarkable confirmation of the idea that gigantic 
specimens of these fishes might be occasionally de- 
veloped. The gentleman in question wrote to in- 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 93 


form me that about thirty years ago he engaged the 
smack Sovereign, of Hull, Baillie commander, to 
trawl in the Frith of Forth for Lord Norbury, then 
residing at Elie Lodge, Fifeshire. Whilst engaged 
in their trawling operations the crew of the Sove- 
reign captured a giant tape-fish, which, when spread 
out at length on the deck, extended beyond the 
limits of the vessel at stem and stern. The smack 
was a vessel of forty tons burthen, and the length 
may therefore be safely estimated at sixty feet—this 
measurement being exceeded by the ribbon-fish. The 
breadth of the fish measured from five to nine inches, 
and the dorsal fin was from six to seven inches in 
depth. Unfortunately Lord Norbury seemed in- 
clined to view the giant he had captured with dis- 
trust, and ordered the fish to be cut in pieces and 
thrown overboard; but it is also worthy of remark 
that the trawlers seemed to express no gteat surprise 
at the size of Lord Norbury’s specimen, since they 
asserted that they had met with one much larger, 
this latter being colored of a dirty brown hue. 

It is interesting to note that the details furnished 
in the following account—taken from the Zimes of 
June 14, 1877—of a marine monster having been seen 
in the Mediterranean Sea, appear to be explicable 
on the ideas just mentioned regarding the tape-fishes. 
The account is furnished by observers whose vera- 
city it would simply be impertinent to question: 
**The Osborne, 2, paddled royal yacht, Commander 
Hugh L. Pearson, which arrived at Portsmouth 
from the Mediterranean on Monday, and at once pro- 
ceeded to her moorings in the harbor, has forwarded 
an official report to the Admiralty, through the com- 
mander-in-chief (Admiral Sir George Elliot, K.C.B.), 
respecting a sea-monster which she encountered 
during her homeward voyage. At about five o’clock 
in the afternoon of the 2d instant, the sea being ex- 
ceptionally calm, while the yacht was proceeding 
round the north coast of Sicily toward Cape Vito, the 
officer on the watch observed along ridge of fins, each 


94 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


about six feet long, moving slowly along. He called 
for a telescope, and was at once joined by other offi- 
cers. The Osborne was steaming westward at ten 
and a half knots an hour, and, having a long passage 
before her, could not stay to make minute observa- 
tions. The fins were progressing in an eastwardly di- 
rection, and as the vessel more nearly approached 
them, they were replaced by the foremost part of a 
gigantic sea-monster. Its skin was, so far as could 
be seen, altogether devoid of scales, appearing rather 
to resemble in sleekness that of a seal. The head was 
bullet-shaped, with an elongated termination, being 
somewhat similar in form to that of a seal, and was 
about six feet in diameter. Its features were only 
seen by one officer, who described them as like those of 
an alligator. The neck was comparatively narrow, but 
so much of the body as could be seen developed in 
form like that of a gigantic turtle, and from each 
side extended two fins, about fifteen feet in length, 
by which the monster paddled itself along after the 
fashion of a turtle. The appearance of the monster 
is accounted for by a submarine volcano, which oc- 
curred north of Galita, in the Gulf of Tunis, about 
the middle of May, and was reported at the time by 
a steamer which was struck by a detached fragment 
of submarine rock. The disturbance below water, 
it is thought probable, may have driven up the mons- 
ter from its ‘native element,’ as the site of the erup- 
tion is only one hundred miles from where it was 
reported to have been seen.” 

I thought the opportunity a favorable one for 
offering a reasonable explanation of the circumstance, 
and I communicated my views to the 7?%mes in the fol- 
lowing terms, the latter appearing in that journal for 
June 15th, 1877: ‘‘ About a year ago I ventilated in 
the columns of several journals the idea that the ‘sea- 
serpents’ so frequently seen were in reality giant 
tape-fishes or ribbon-fishes. While not meaning by 
this statement to exclude the idea that other ani- 
mals—such as giant sea-snakes themselves—may oc- 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 25 


casionally personate the ‘sea-serpent,’ I am, as a 
zoologist, fully convinced that very many of the re- 
ported appearances of sea-serpents are explicable on 
the supposition that giant tape-fishes—of the exist- 
ence of which no reasonable doubt can be entertained 
—have been seen. The report of Captain Pearson, 
of the royal yacht Osborne, appears, as far as zoologi- 
cal characters are concerned, to be fully explained 
on the ‘ ribbon-fish’ theory. The long back fins, the 
scaleless skin, the rounded head, and, lastly, the two 
great side (or pectoral) fins, each measuring man 
feet in length, all form so many details correspond- 
ing exactly to the appearance of a great tape-fish. 
I offer these observations with the view of showing 
that, given a recital founded, as I believe the present 
narrative to be, on fact, we possess in the lists of liv- 
ing and of well-known animals adequate representa- 
tives of the ‘ great unknown.’” 

The imperfect view obtained of the body renders 
the expression contained in the report, that the body 
was ‘‘ like that of a gigantic turtle,” somewhat prob- 
lematical as to its correctness, and in the absence of 
more defined information does not necessarily in- 
validate the views expressed above as to the person- 
ality of this strange tenant of the Mediterranean Sea. 

In an article entitled ‘‘ Strange Sea Creatures,” 
which appeared in the Gentleman’s “Magazine for 
March, 1877, Mr. R. A. Proctor, speaking of my 
views regarding the sea-serpent, remarks that I 
offer ‘‘as an alternative, only the ribbon-fish.” This 
observation being hardly correct, I may point out 
that in the article in Good Words, from which Mr. 
Proctor quotes my views, I distinctly refer to the 
probability of giant sea-snakes being occasionally de- 
veloped and appearing as the modern sea-serpent. 
The use of the word ‘‘only” in Mr. Proctor’s re- 
mark is misleading; since I offer the ribbon-fishes 
simply as explanatory of certain sea-serpent narra- 
tives, and not asa sole and universal representative 
of the modern leviathan. 


26 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


Thus, then, with the ribbon-fishes at hand, and 
with the clear proofs before us that these and other 
animals may be developed to a size which, when 
compared with their ordinary dimensions, we can 
only term enormous, I think the true and valid ex- 
planation of the sea-serpent question is neither far 
to seek nor difficult to find. ‘To objectors of a prac- 
tical turn of mind, who may remind me that we 
have not yet procured even a single bone of a giant ~ 
serpent, I would point out that I by no means main- 
tain the frequent development of such beings. 'The 
most I argue for and require is their occasional pro- 
duction; and I would also remind such objectors of 
the case of the giant cuttle-fishes, which, until with- 
in the past few years, remained in the same mysteri- 
ous seclusion affected at present by the great serpen- 
tine unknown. I need only add that I have as firm 
faith in the actual discovery of the giant serpent of 
the sea, as that in the giant tape-fish we find its rep- 
resentative, or that in the huge development of ordi- 
nary forms we discover the true and natural law of 
its production. 

To sum up my arguments by way of conclusion, 
I respectfully submit, as does a pleading counsel to 
his jury— 

Firstly: That many of the tales of sea-serpents are 
amply verified, when judged by the ordinary rules 
of evidence; this conclusion being especially sup- 
ported by the want of any primd facie reason for pre- 
varication. 

Secondly: That, laying aside appearances which 
can be proved to be deceptive and to be caused by 
inanimate objects or by unusual attitudes on the part 
of familiar animals, there remains a body of evidence 
only to be explained on the hypothesis that certain 
gigantic marine animals, at present unfamiliar 
or unknown to science, do certainly exist; and, 

Thirdly: That the existence of such animals is a 
fact perfectly consistent with scientific opinion and 
knowledge, and is most readily explained by ,recog- 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 97 


nizing the fact of the occasional development of gi- 
gantic members of groups of marine animals already 
familiar to the naturalist. 


Since the foregoing remarks were penned, details 
have been published (Nature, February 21st, 1878) 
respecting ‘‘ A New Underground Monster,” which 
have a very decided bearing on the sea-serpent ques- 
tion, as tending to show that even in the land-fauna 
of remote districts there may be included animals of 
a size and nature utterly undreamt of by the scienti- 
fic world. ‘The details alluded to are forwarded by 
the well-known naturalist Fritz Miller, and are relat- 
ed of the appearance and doings of the ‘‘ Minhocao,” 
a creature supposed to be a ‘‘ gigantic earth-worm,” 
and which inhabits the highlands of the southern 
provinces of Brazil. The account as given in the 
pages of Nature is of similar nature to the stories 
told us of the existence and appearance of sea-ser- 
pents. There is the same simplicity of narrative, 
united to an absence of all reason or cause for exag- 
geration or invention. We are therefore bound, as 
already remarked, either to accept such stories as 
true—as relating to observed facts—and to examine 
them impartially with the view of detecting discrep- 
ancy and of possibly modifying details; or, on the 
other hand, to unhesitatingly and simply reject them. 
This latter procedure would of course be founded on 
an unwarrantable supposition—such as in the ordi- 
nary affairs of life would not for amoment be toler- 
ated—namely, that deliberate lying and meaningless 
deception are vices of commoner occurrence than 
humanity at large has been led to suppose. The 
marks or tracks of the animal, of whatever descrip- 
tion it may be, are a valuable source of evidence 
which, unfortunately, the ‘‘pathless deep” cannot 
offer to the inquirers into the personality of the 
‘*sea-Serpent.” Pending further research, one may 
only remark, that the details given are inall respects 
of a very circumstantial and clearly related kind, 


28 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY 


and are such as would lead us to be exceedingly 
hopeful, now that scientific attention has been di- 
rected to the matter, of new and extraordinary addi- 
tions being made to the lists of zoologists. The 
following is the account of the animal in ques- 
tion: 

‘‘The stories told of this supposed animal,” says 
Fritz Miller, ‘‘ sound for the most part so incredible 
that one is tempted to consider them as fabulous. 
Who could repress a smile at hearing men speak of 
a worm some fifty yards in length and five in 
breadth, covered with bones as with a coat of armor, 
uprooting mighty pine trees as if they were blades of 
grass, diverting the courses of streams into fresh 
channels, and turning dry land into a bottomless mo- 
’ rass? And yet, after carefully considering the dif- 
ferent accounts given of the minhocao one can hard- 
ly refuse to believe that some such animal does 
really exist, although not quite so large as the coun- 
try folk would have us to believe. 

‘‘ About eight years ago a minhocao appeared in 
the neighborhood of Lages. Francisco de Amaral 
Varella, when about ten kilometers distant from 
_ that town, saw lying on the bank of the Rio das Ca- 

veiras a strange animal of gigantic size, nearly one 

meter in thickness, not very long, and with a snout 
like a pig, but whether it had legs or not he could not 
tell. He did not dare to seize it alone, and whilst 
calling his neighbors to his assistance, it vanished, 
not without leaving palpable marks behind it in the 
shape of a trench, as it disappeared under the earth. 
A week later, a similar trench, perhaps constructed by 
the same animal, was seen on the opposite side of La- 
ges, about six kilometers distant from the former, and 
the traces were followed, which led ultimately under 
the roots of a large pine tree, and were lost in the 
marshy land. Herr F. Kelling, from whom this in- 
formation was obtained, was at that time living as a 
merchant in Lages, and saw himself the trenches 
made by the minhocao. Herr E. Odebrecht, whilst 


THE SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 929 


surveying a line of road from Itajahy into the high- 
lands of the province of Santa Caterina, several 
years ago, crossed a broad, marshy plain traversed 
by an arm of the river Marombas. His progress 
here was much impeded by devious winding 
trenches which followed the course of the stream, 
and occasionally lost themselves in it. At the time 
Herr Odebrecht could not understand the origin of 
these peculiar trenches, but he is now inclined to be- 
lieve that they were the work of the minhocao. 

‘* About fourteen years ago, in the month of Janu- 
ary, Antonio José Branco, having been absent with 
his whole family eight days from his house, which 
was situated on one of the tributaries of the Rio dos 
Cachorros, ten kilometers from Curitibanos, on re- 
turning home found the road undermined, heaps of 
earth being thrown up, and large trenches made. 
These trenches commenced at the source of a brook, 
and followed its windings, terminating ultimately in 
a morass, after a course of from 700 to 1000 meters. 
The breadth of the trenches was said to be about | 
three meters. Since that period the brook has 
flowed in the trench made by the minhocao. The 
path of the animal lay generally beneath the surface 
of the earth under the bed of the stream; several 
pine trees had been rooted up by its passage. One 
of the trees from which the minhocao in passing had 
torn off the bark, and part of the wood, was said to 
be still standing and visible last year. Hundreds of 
people from Curitibanos and other places had come 
to see the devastation caused by the minhocao, and 
supposed the animal to be still living in the marshy 
pool, the waters of which appeared at certain times 
to be suddenly and strangely troubled. Indeed, on 
still nights, a rumbling sound like distant thunder 
and a slight movement of the earth was sensible in 
the neighboring dwellings. This story was told to 
Herr Miller by two eye-witnesses, José, son of old 
Branco, and a stepson, who formerly lived in the 
same house. Herr Miiller remarks that the appear- 


30 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY, 


ance of the minhocao is always supposed to presage 
a period of rainy weather. 

‘‘In the neighborhood of the Rio dos Papagaios, 
in the province of Parana, one evening in 1849, after 
a long course of rainy weather, a sound was heard 
in the house of a certain Joao_de Deos, as if rain 
were again falling in a wood hard by, but on looking 
out the heavens were seen to be bright with stars. 
On the following morning it was discovered that a 
large piece of land on the farther side of a small ‘hill 
had been entirely undermined, and was traversed by 
deep trenches which led toward a bare open plateau 
covered with stones, or what is called in this district 
a ‘legeado.’ At this spot large heaps of clay turned 
up out of the earth marked the onward course of the 
animal from the legeado into the bed of a stream 
running into the Papagaios. Three years after this 
place was visited by Senhor Lebino José dos Santos, 
a wealthy proprietor, now resident near Curitibanos. 
He saw the ground still upturned, the mounds of 
clay on the rocky plateau, and the remains of the 
moved earth in the rocky bed of the brook quite 
plainly, and came to the conclusion that it must 
have been the work of two animals, the size of 
which must have been from two to three meters ia 
breadth. 

‘‘In the same neighborhood, according to Senhor 
Lebino, a minhocao had been seen several times be- 
fore. A black woman going to draw water from a 
pool near a house one morning, according to her 
usual practice, found the whole pool destroyed, and 
saw a short distance off an animal which she de- 
scribed as being as big as a house moving off along 
the ground. The people whom she summoned to 
see the monster were too late, and found only traces 
of the animal, which had apparently plunged over a 
neighboring cliff into deep water. In the same dis- 
trict a young man saw a huge pine suddenly over- 
turned, when there was no wind and no one to cut 
it. On hastening up to discover the cause, he found 


THH SHA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 31 


the surrounding earth in movement, and an enor- 
mous worm-like black animal in the middle of it, 
about twenty-five meters long, and with two horns 
"on its head. % 

‘In the province of Sao Paulo, as Senhor Lebino 
also states, not far from Ypanema, is a spot that is 
still called Charquinho, that is Little Marsh, as it 
formerly was, but some years ago a minhocao made 
a trench through the marsh into the Ypanema river, 
and so converted it into the bed of a stream. 

‘*In the year 1849, Senhor Lebino was on a journey 
near Arapehy, in the State of Uruguay. ‘There he 
was told that there was a dead minhocao to be seen 
a few miles off, which had got wedged into a narrow 
cleft of arock, and so perished. Its skin was said to 
be as thick as the bark of a pine tree, and formed of 
hard scales like those of an armadillo. 

‘**From all these stories it would appear conclusive 
that in the high district where the Uruguay and the 
Parana have their sources, excavations and long 
trenches are met with, which are undoubtedly the 
work of some living animal. Generally, if not 
always, they appear after continued rainy weather, 
and seem to start from marshes or river-beds, and to 
enter them again. The accounts as to the size and 
appearance of the creature are very uncertain. It 
might be suspected to be a gigantic fish allied to 
Lepidosiren and Ceratodus ; the ‘swine’s snout’ would 
show some resemblance to Ceratodus, while the horns 
on the body rather point to the front limbs of Lepi- 
dosiren, if these particulars can be at all depended 
upon. In any case, concludes Herr Miller, it would 
be worth while to make further investigations about 
the minhocao, and, if possible, to capture it for a 
zoological garden! 

‘*To conclude this remarkable story, we may ven- 
ture to suggest whether, if any such animal really 
exist, which, upon the testimony produced by Fritz 
Miller, appears very probable, it may not rather be 
a relic of the race of gigantic armadilloes which in 


32 THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. 


past geological epoehs were so abundant in Southern 
Brazil. The little Chiamydophorus truncatus is, we 
believe, mainly, if not entirely, subterranean in its 
habits. May there not still exist a large representa- 
tive of the same or nearly allied genus, or, if the 
suggestion be not too bold, even a last descendant of 


the Glyptodonts?” 
ANDREW WILSON. 


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Volume 1. January to June, 1879, 774 pages. 


Future of India, The, E. Perry 

Coup D’Etat, A Poem : 
Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders. H. B. Baker 
Winter Mornin the Country. A. H. Japp 

Happy Valley, The, L. A. 

Phoenicians in Greece, The, A. H. Sayce 

Gossip about Leicester Square 

Woman’s Love, A, A Slavonian Study 

Imperial Pardon, An, F. A.S. 

Christmasin Morocco. C. A. P. 

Italian Poets, Guarini. T. A. Trollope 

Vaquero, The, A Poem. F. Desprez 

Two Modern Japanese Stories 

Supposed Changes in the Moon. R. A. Proctor 
Thackeray, Recollections of, 

Friends and Foes of Russia. W.E. Gladstone 

English Men of Letters—Shelley. T. Bayne 

Growth of London, The, 

Farmhouse Dirge, A. Austin * 

Dreamland. A Last Sketch. Julia Kavanagh ~ - 
France, Contemporary Life and Thought in, G. Monod 
Schoolship Shaftesbury, The, H.C. Ewart 

Knocked Down and Picked up Again 

Atheism and the Church. G. H. Curteis 

Ferney in Voltaire’s Time, and To-day. W. G. Blaikie 
Discoveries of Astronomers—Hipparchus, R. A. Proctor 
Fersen, Count Jean Axel de ‘ 
Socialism, Chapters on, J ohn Stuart Mill 
Contentment. A Poem. C.C. Fraser Tytler 
Association of Local Societies. (i) . CO. Ward 


The Library Magazine— Continued. 


Reform in Teaching the Classics. J. S. Blackie 

Worth of a Classical Education. B. Price 

Lamb, Charles, Anecdotes of, A. Black 
Contemporary Life and Thoughtin Russia. T.S. 
Cobbett, William, Thomas Hughes 

Transvaal, About the, 

American View of Annerican Competition. KE, Atkinson 
Artificial Somnambu!lism, R. A. Proctor 

Progress of Greece, The, R. C. Jebb 

Irving’s Hamlet 

Dedicatory Poem to the Princess Alice 

Defence of Lucknow, The, A Poem 

Socialism, The Difficulties of, J. Stuart Mill 
Biographies of the Season 

Choice of Books. Fred Harrison 

Homes and Haunts of Italian Poets—Tasso. F. E. Trollope 
Cupid’s Workshop. A Ballad. S. Gibney. 

Plain Words about the Afghan Question. A, Forbes 
Fresh Assyrian Finds. B. H. Cooper 

Entomology. Popular Science Review 

Art Education in Great Britain. C. Lindsay 

Toilers in Field and Factory. No.1, Exodus 

Wagner as a Dramatist. E. Rose 

Royal Wedding, The, A.Poem. H.C. Merivale 
Locusts. Chambers’s Journal 

Probability as the Guide of Conduct. Gladstone 
Dobell, Sidney. A Sketch. R. Buchanan 

Toilers in Field and Factory. No. II, Characteristics 
Through the Ages. A. Poem 

French Republic and the Catholic Church. John Morley 
Commercial Depression and Reciprocity. B. Price 
Alcohol, its Action and Uses. J. R. Gasquet 

Their Appointed Seasons. J. G@. Wood 

Study of Natural History. St. George Mivart 
Chances of English Opera. F. Hueffer 
Manzoni’s Hymn for Whitsunday. Dean A. P. Stanley 
Philological Society’s English Dictionary 

Historical Aspect of American Churches. Dean Stanley 
Greece and the Treaty of Berlin. W.E. Gladstone 
Froissart’s Love Story. Walter Besant 

Musi cal Cultus of the Day. H.H. Statham 

Critic on the Hearth, The, James Payn 

Calculating Boys. R. A. Proctor 

French Novels. Blackwood’s Magazine 
Schopenhauer on Men, Books, and Music. M. B.E. 
Visit to the New Zealand Geysers. C. Bunbury 


Volume 2. July to December, 1879, 804 pages. 


Franklin, Benjamin, Thomas Hughes 

Last Jewish Revolt, The, Ernest Renan 
Drunkenness in England. John B. Gough 

Etna. R.A. Proctor 

Our New Wheat Fields in the Northwest. T. T. V. Smith 
Generic Images. F. Galton 

Hidden Treasures. Torlonia Museum. Blackwood. 
Comédie Francaise, The, F. Sarcey 

“ Egils Saga,” The, E. W. 

Dragon Flies. J. G. Wood 

Milky Way, The, A Poem. C. Templar 

To Garibaldi. A Sonnet. J.S. Blackie 

Studiesin Biography. Fraser’s Magazine 

Music and Musicians. Quarterly Review 

French Play in London. Matthew Arnold 

Classical Controversy, The, A oo 


The Library Magazine—OCOoniinued. 


History and Politics. J. R. Seeley 

Meteor Dust. R. A. Proctor 

In Denmark, A. J.C. Hare 

Prince Napoleon. J. H. McCarthy 

McCarthy, Justin, A Sketch. University Magazine 
New Vocation for Women. _J. Chesney 

Future of China, The, W.H. Medhurst 

In Sweden. A.J. C. Hare 

Notes from Cyprus. Blackwood 

Clerical Education in France. E. About. 

Cagliostro of the Second Century. J. A. Froude 
Hungarian Episode—Zigeuner Music. Fraser’s Magazine 
Haunted. A Poem. G. B. Stuart 

Lark, The, A Poem. M. Collins 

History and Politics, II. J. R. Seeley 

Problem of the Great Pyramid. R. A. Proctor 
Black, William, A Sketch. University Magazine 
Dulce est Decipere. A. Poem. J. A. Symonds 

Prize French Novel, The, Blackwoo 

National Poetry of Servia. K. Freiligrath Kroeker 
Surgeon and the Mogul’s Daughter. Chambers 
Dialogue on Human Happiness. W.H, Mallock 
Artistic Dualism of the Renaissance. Vernon Lee 
God in the Indo-European Mythology. J. Darmesteter 
Baptism. Dean A. P. Stanley 

History and Politics, III. J. R. Seeley 

In Norway. A. J.C. Hare 

Down Among the Dutchmen. H. Van Laun 

Our Nameless Benefactors. J. G. Wood 

Horace. Odesiand 15. Gentleman’s Magazine 
Double Memorial of Newstead Abbey. W. G. Blaikie 
Parliamentary Government in America. H. White 
Model Men and Women. Dutton Cook 

Age of Dante in the Florentine Chronicles. E. M. Clerke 
First and Last. A Poem. A. K. 

Ion. Blackwood’s Magazine 

Whatis Religion? J. P. Thompson 

Joseph De Maistre on Russia. Quarterly Review 
Blackbird, The, A Poem. Sydney Grey 

Pascal and his Editors. Quarterly Review 

Hans Sachs and the Mastersong. M. W. M. C. 
Demise of the Kaiserbund 

On Freedom. F. Max Muller 

Unity of Nature. A Speculation. H. Carlisle 
Cinderella. W.R.S, Ralston 

History and Politics, IV. J. R. Seeley 

Ancient British Church. London Quarterly Review 
Mathematician’s View of Evolution. W.H. L. Russell 
Beasts, Birds and Insects in Irish Folk-lore. L. McClintock 
Blackwood, John, Obituary. Athencum 

Sermon in Stone. A Poem. A. Dobson. 


Volume 3. January to June, 1880, 115% pages 


Russian Gypsies, The, C. G. Leland 

Philosophy of Color. Hdinburgh Review 

Lord’s Prayer and the Church. J. Ruskin 
Literary Calling andits Future. J. Payn 
Whatis Rent? B. Price 

Functions of the Brain. J. Althaus 

Utility to Flowers of their Beauty. E. Fry 
Where are wein Art? Lady F. P. Verney 

Homes and Haunts of Italian Poets—Alfieri. ¥. B. Trollope 
Shakespeare’s Fools. J. N. Hetherington 
Conservatoire of Music for ere aw C. S. Maine 


The Library Magazine—Ooniinued. 


Buddha’s First Sermon 

Blackwood, John. A Sketch. Blackwood’s Magazine 
Land Laws and Landlords. J. S. Blackie 

Justinian, A Poem. R. Buchanan 

Data of Ethics—Spencer. H. Calderwood 

Character and WEttogs of Cyrus the Great. G. Rawlinson 
Health and Home,I. B. W. Richardson 

Colorado. J. W. Barclay 
Rejected Manuscripts. Belgravia 

Handel. H. H. Statham 

Russian Nihilism. F. Cunliffe-Owen 

Cervantes’ Voyage to Parnassus. James Mew 
Pheedra and Phédre. L. Tennyson 

Old Fashioned Gardening. M. A, Paul : 
Delane, John Thadeus. A Sketch. Macmillan’s Mag. 
Prayer among all Nations. C, Geikie 

raaceal aint Me Ghost Story. A. Jessopp 

Free Trade, Railways and Commerce. W.E. Gladstone 
Usury. John Ruskin ( 

Health at Home, continued. B. W. Richardson 
Paganism in Paris. Hyacinthe Loyson 

New Fiction. H. Holbeach 

Pyramids of Ghizeh. R, A. Proctor 

Beginnings of Greek Sculpture. W.H. Poter 

Irish Needs and Remedies. H. M, Hyndman 

Reign of Queen Anne. Blackwood 

Sensational Science. A Poem. G. R. Sims 

Middle Class Domestic Life in Spain. H. J. Rose 
Whatis Jupiter Doing? H. J. Slack 

Hagan’s Death Song. Freiligrath-Kroeker 

Cid, The, W.E. A. Axon 

Sleepless Night. ASonnet. A. Austin 

Manliness of Christ. Thomas Hughes 

Copyright. Matthew Arnold 

Beethoven. H. H. Statham 

Story of the “‘ Merchant of Venice.” J. aang 
Beginnings of Greek Sculpture, II. W.H. Pater. 
Sham Admiration in Literature. J. Payn 
Philosophy of Drawing-rooms. G. A. 

Burns and Béranger. C. Mackay 

Radiant Matter. D. Pigeon 

Perfect Death, The, A Poem. A.P.S. 

Seeking Rest. A Poem. J. A. Noble 

Light of Asia, The, A Poem. Edwin Arnold 
Goethe’s “‘ Farbenlehre.” J. Tyndall 

Outlook in Europe, The, Scrutator 

Deep Sea and its Contents. W.B. Carpenter 
Personal Property, Debt and Interest. T. W. Newman 
Health at Home, III. B. W. Richardson 

Franklin, Benjamin. Edinburgh Review 

Atheism and the Rights of Man. W.H. Mallock 
Recent Events in Arabia. W.S. Blunt 

Pinch of Poverty, The, J. Payn 

Animal Intelligence. Westminster Review 

Whatisa Bank? B. Price 

Variations of the Roman Church. Dean Stanley 
Marcus Aurelius. By Ernest Renan 

Renan, Ernest, ASketch. G. Saintsbury 
Daltonism. William Pole 

Old Part of Naples: . John Peter 


Volume 4, July-August, 1880, 390 pages. 


French Republic and the Catholic Church, E, Scherer 
Landscape Painting. R. P. Collier 
Xantippe—a fragment. Amy vey? 


The Library Magazine— Continued. 


Thorean, Henry David, his Character and Opinions 
Health at Home, IV. B. W. Richardson 

Pleafor Musicians L. T. 

Channing, Wm. E., the Abolitionist. T. Hughes 
Method of Zadig. . H. Huxley 

English Poets, The, Matthew Arnold 

Diamonds, N. atural and Artificial, A.M. Clerke 
Backwoods of Ceylon. A. Gray 

Suicide. Blackwood’s Magazine 

Sculptures on the Facade of St. Mark’s, Venice. J. P. Richter 
Sources of German Discontent. K. Hillebrand 
Migration of Popular Stories. G. W. Cox 

French Clergy and the Present Republic. Abbe Martin 
Stranger in America. G, J. Holyoake 

Too Much and Too Little to Do. London Society 
Railroads of the United States, E. Atkinson 

Austrian Power, The, E. A. Freeman 

Cimabue and Coal Secuttles. G. A. 

Book of Job, The, T. K, Cheyne 

Wodan, Wild Huntsman, Wandering Jew, Karl Bland 
Deciine of German Universities, A. T. S. Goodrick 
Postal Notes, Money Orders and Bank Checks. W.S. Jevons 
Fable, A, A Poem. A. Dobson 

Girlhood. A Poem, Aileen 


Volume 5. October, 1880, 400 pages. 


Why the Colonies Separated from Britain. John Fiske 
Recent and Future Arctic Voyages. Quarterly Review 
Englishman’s Protest. Cardinal Manning 
Andersen, Hans Christian, Letters to and from, 
Moon and its Folk-Lore, The, T. F. T. Dyer 
Founders of New England.—John Winthrop. W.F. Rae 
Creed of the Early Christians. Dean Stanley 
Afghans and their History. Prof. E. Sachau 
Growth of Sculpture. G. Allen 
Sonnet in England, The, J. A. Noble 
Life in the Homeric Age. Temple Bar 
Ireland. J. A. Froude 
Week in Athens, A, Blackwood’s Magazine 
Health at Home, V. B. W. Richardson 
California. R. H. Patterson 
MentalImagery. F. Galton 
Youth of Queen Bess. Temple Bar 
How the Planets Travel. 8S, B. J. Skertchly 
Bayard of the Kast. Blackwood’s Magazine 
Iceland. D, Wedderburn 
Foreign Titles. Cornhill Magazine 
Jelly Fishes, A. Wilson 
Milton and Wordsworth. Temple Bar 
New Renaissance, or the Gospel of Intensity. H. Quilter 
Seamy Side of Letters, The, Cornhill Magazine 
Romance of Literary Discovery. Temple Bar 


Volume 6. December, 1880, 400 pages, 


College Education. J. A. Garfield 2 
Future Governmental Changesin the U.S. E. V. Smalley 
Future of the Canadian Dominion. W. Clark 

Lowell, James Russell, Poet and Essayist. H. R. Haweis 
Chemistry of the Stars. Edinburgh Review 

Cattle Ranches of the Far West. W.B, Grohman 

Are we Englishmen? G. Allen 

Greece and the Greeks. W. J. Stillman 

Boston in England. A. Rimmer 

Old Pacific Capitol (Monterey). R. L. Stevenson 
Philosophy of Conservatism, We H. Mallock 


The Library Magazine—Continued. 


Burns, Robert. A Sketch. G. W. Curtis 

* Odd” People. Mrs. Mulock-Craik 

Procedure of Deliberative Bodies. A. Bain 
Mythical and Medizeval Swords. F. P. Verne 

Oldest City in the World (Damascus). Prof. Robertson 
Chase, The, Its history and laws. A. E. Cockburn 
Literary Success a Hundred Years Ago. M. Hunt 
Visit to a Religious H>usein Greece. C. Russell 
Roof of the World, The, (Ban-i-duniah). Blackwood 
Philosophy of Crayfishes. H. Goodwin 

Art of Singing, Past and Present. Vernon Lee 
Germany, Pastand Present. Edinburgh Review 
Gibraltar of the East (Aden). Temple Bar 
Co-operation. Thomas Hughes 

Darwin, Erasmus, A Sketch. Temple Bar 


Volume 7. February, 1881, 400 pages. 


Reminiscences of Bowdoin. A.S. Packard 

Political Organization in General. H. Spencer 

Lowell, James Russell, Poet and Essayist, II, H. R. Haweis 
Subscription. Dean Stanley 

Chase, The, Its history and laws, II, A. E. Cockburn 
George Eliot’s Analysis of Motives. N. Sheppard 
Church of England Fifty Years yon J. A. Froude 
Taxation in the United States. Contemporary Review 
Prophetic Power of Poetry. J.C. Shair 

New Departure in Temperance. W. Gladden 
Glastonbury, British and English. E. A. Freeman 
Suicidal Mania. Wm. Knighton 

Horses and their Feet. G. W. Cox 

Newspaper, The, Robert Collier 

Recent Travelsin Japan. Quarterly Review 

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, Temple Bar 

What Can be Done for Ireland. W.B. Jones 
Buddhists and Buddhism in Burmah. Shway Yoe - 
Health at Home, VI. B. W. Richardson 

Forgotten Empire in Asia Minor, (Hittite). A. H. Sayce 
Shakespeare as a Prose Writer. J.C. Collins 

In China Town, San Francisco. I. D. Hardy 

Early Celtic College, An, H. Macmillan 

Oldest State in Europe (San Marino). J.T. Bent 

Does Writing Pay? Belgravia 

Nihilism in Russia. M. Kaufmann 

Geist’s Grave. A Poem. M. Arnold 

Californian Society. Quarterly Review 

Oldest Religious Buildings in Christendom, The, H. Holmes 


Volume 8. October, 1881, 758 pages. 


Beyond. David Swing 

Vermont Ruskin. Spectator 

English re cata F. A. March 

Study of History. Edward A. Freeman 

Literary Profession in the South. Margaret J. Preston 
Reminiscences of the High Church Revival. J. A, Froude 
Aisthetics in Parliament. Justin McCarthy 

Day with Liszt in 1880. H. R. Haweis 

Study of Shakespeare. Joseph Crosby 

Genius and Method. Temple Bar 

Who wrote “Gil Blas?”” Henry Van Laun 

Morality of the Profession of Letters. R. L. Stevenson 
Thomas Carlyle. Mrs. Oliphant 

Political Differentiation. Herbert Spencer 

Modern Italian Poets. Francis Huefter 

Night on Mount Washington. Professor G. W. Blaikie 
Byron in Greece. Temple Bar 6) 


The Library Magazine—Continued. 


Carlyle’s Lectures on European Culture. Prof. Edw. Dowden 
What Became of Cromwell? Gentleman’s Magazine 
United States for Agricultural Settlers. Earl of Airlie’ 
Novels and Novel-makers. Good Words 

How to Read Books. John Dennis 

William Prescott at Bunker Hill. Robert C. Winthrop 
First Printed Book Known. M. D. Conway 

Revised Version of the New Testament. Alex. Roberts 
Sir David Brewster and Sir J. Herschel. Alex. Strahan 
Charles Dickens in the Editor’s Chair 

Justice to Beaconsfield. George M. Towle 

Sword, The, Blackwood’s Magazine 

Early Life of Thomas Carlyle. J. A. Froude 
Anecdotes of Bibles. Chambers’s Journal 

First English Poet, The, William Allingham 
Bonaparte. J.R.Seeley_ | ; 

Origin of London. Cornhill Magazine 

William Blake. Frederick Wedmore 

Francis Bret Harte. M.S. V.deV. 

Gossip of an Old Bookworm. W.4J. Thoms 

Cuneiform Writing. W.O. Sproull 

English and American English. Richard A. Proctor 
Dogs of Literature. Temple Bar 

British Census of 1881. Chambers’s Journal 

Great Discovery in Egypt. Saturday Review 

Another World Down Here. W. Mattieu Williams 


Volume 9, December, 1881, 288 pages. 


Women as Civil Servants. Margaret E. Harkness 

In Wyoming. Archibald Geikie 

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. Augustus J. C. Hare 

The Canadian Tariff. oldwin Smith 

James A. Garfield. James Russell Lowell 

Worry. J. M. Granville 

The Home of John Bunyan at Elstow. Saturday Review 
Fiction: Fair and Foul. John Ruskin 

Earthquakes: Their Cause and Origin. arterly Review 
The Progress of Medicine. Westminster Review 

The Geysers of the Yellowstone. Archibald Geikie 
Young Mrs. Carlyle. Mary C. Taber 

Modern Spanish Literature. Wentworth Webster 

The Development of Electric Lighting. Quarterly Review. 


Notices of ‘‘ Choice Literature.” 


“A monthly of very decided merit.”—Central Methodist, Cat 
lettsburg, Ky. 


“Ts worthy a generous support.”—The Dartmouth, Hanover, 


Here is indeed “ Choice Literature” at a cheap price.—South- 
ern Churchman, Richmond, Va. 


“Brings to readers of limited means all that is best in the cur- 
rent literature of the day. Certainly its great merits deserve a 
high place in public favor.”—Presbyterian, Toronto, Canada. 


‘Devoted to the reprint of the best of articles published in 
current periodicals. It is the cheapest magazine of choice liter- 
once of Pashia we have any knowledge.”—Religious Telescope, 

ayton, O. 


** The enlarged Choice Literature has just come to hand and I 
congratulate you. The number is a worthy successor to the ex- 
cellent Library Magazine, which I took from the beginning, and 
which I considered even superior in character to the Eclectic, 
which I was also taking.”— W. - Kin@, Newark, Ohio. 


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